Peter Ellenshaw

Volcano Eruption - Explosive Fire Lava Flow from Hell

1983 circa

From the Glynn and Suzanne Crain Collection, unsigned

A sadistic laughing Devil grinning a big smile is pictured hovering over a Hellfire. He is reveling while witnessing tiny ant-like sinners engage in eternal torture, torment, and co...

Aeling’s Volcano evokes both geological force and atmospheric delicacy, combining two subjects that defined his artistic identity. The plume rising from the crater recalls the volcanic forms he encountered during his winters in Hawaii—where he surfed, explored calderas, and observed firsthand how ash, vapor, and heat bend the light. The ring-shaped formation above the eruption suggests the interaction of rising particulate matter with upper-air currents, a phenomenon Aeling studied intensely. This small painting captures a vast event, merging his lifelong fascination with natural systems and the lived experiences that nurtured his deep respect for the Pacific landscape. Jeff Aeling Volcano oil on panel 10h x 8w in 25.40h x 20.32w cm JAE037 Jeff Aeling (1958–2025): The Sky Remembers Through Jeff Aeling’s eyes, the landscape becomes a world shaped as much by air as by earth. In works such as North of Las Vegas, NM and Pond Near St. Cloud, MN, he balances the quiet structure of plains and wetlands with skies alive in constant motion. His mastery of atmosphere is unmistakable in Light Pillars (2023) and Light Pillar (2023), where rare optical events turn night into architecture. Even intimate scenes like Crabapple, Dogwoods, and Red Bud find their emotional power under skies that lend the land its shifting character. Aeling’s winters in Hawaii deepened his sensitivity to movement and weather. Surfing taught him to read the rhythm of the ocean, a knowledge reflected in Wave, Kauai (2018), where a breaking wave becomes a luminous wall of force. In Volcano (2023), he channels the islands’ elemental drama, linking fire, vapor, and sky through the same atmospheric vocabulary found in his plains paintings. Though often compared to American landscape painters like Church and Bierstadt, Aeling’s work engages modernity in subtle ways. He began his paintings with the camera—driving for hours to capture a fleeting alignment of cloud, light, and terrain. In the studio, he removed all traces of people or infrastructure, preserving the landscape as a pure, uncontrollable presence. This blend of tradition and contemporary practice allowed him to honor the past while speaking clearly to the present. Together, these works—whether a crashing wave, a blooming tree, a volcanic plume, or a column of winter light—form a portrait of the world as Aeling experienced it: vast, luminous, and alive with change. The Sky Remembers is both a tribute and an invitation to see the land with the reverence he carried throughout his life. Jeff Aeling (1958-2025) Iowa City, IA Represented in Chicago by Gallery VICTOR Education BFA, Painting and Printmaking, Kansas City Art Institute – Kansas City, MO School of the Art Institute of Chicago – Chicago, IL Solo Exhibitions 2016 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2015 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2014 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO 2013 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2012 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2011 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2010 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Richard Demato Fine Arts Gallery - Sag Harbor, NY William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2009 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2008 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2007 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2006 Tory Folliard Gallery - Milwaukee, WI William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2005 Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL 2005 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2004 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2003 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2002 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Perimeter Gallery - New York, NY 2001 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2000 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 1999 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Elliot Smith Contemporary Art - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 1998 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Elliot Smith Contemporary Art - St. Louis, MO Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Gallery - Kansas City, MO Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL 1996 Grand Arts - Kansas City, MO 1994 Gallery V - Kansas City, MO 1993 Sean Kelly Gallery - Kansas City, MO 1991 Tribal Textile Gallery - Kansas City, MO Selected Group Exhibitions 2022 Kiss Me, It’s Beginning to Snow, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2021 2019 Es-Scape, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL Earth Wind & Fire, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2018 Portraits and Places: Select works from Gallery Victor Armendariz, curated by Corporate Art Advisory, Metropolitan Capital Bank, Chicago, IL Art Hamptons, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Bridgehampton, NY Front and Center, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2004 Art Chicago, Navy Pier...

This piece titled "Well... Shit." is an original piece by Graham Franciose, and is made from watercolor on panel mounted Rives BFK cotton rag, wax sealed, custom Douglas Fir frame. T...