Hawkins

The original oil painting, Hawkins, was completed in 1988 and was created as an entry for a contest being sponsored by Starline Printing, a large firm in Albuquerque, NM. From the winning artwork, Starline planned to publish posters and Christmas cards for their clients. Denton's painting, Hawkins, was the winning entry. The original painting sold to a private collector. When Denton worked in the East, Hawkins was a neighbor who lived in a little house across the street from Denton and his family. He was an old Norwegian sailor who loved to tell stories from his youth, who befriended a small mouse who lived in his house, and who each day walked up the hill to a tavern called The Flying Dutchman to imbibe a little with his cronies and play dominoes. Hawkins had a fiddle, although Denton never heard him play.

In a Norman Rockwell way, Denton immortalized the character, the humanness, and personality of the old sailor in his rendering of Hawkins and endeared him to many collectors.