Bosh! Stephen said rudely. A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce, Ulysses
Breaking down the weekend festival on Sunday night made rising early Monday to drive six hours to Eureka Springs an arduous task. I’m glad that I had no responsibilities when I arrived late on Monday. My first working day in Eureka Springs today involved a drive out of town to find Beaver Bluffs. I’ll be conducting my first workshop on these premises tomorrow afternoon. The directions given were good, and a stiff hike around the lake brought me face to face with towering bluffs and cedars shooting out of their crowns. I still haven’t solved the problem of watercoloring cedar trees, and I so love their appearance. The colors elude me as do the foliage patterns, though I feel I am getting the hang of the colors of the twisted trunks and branches. The striations in the rocky surfaces below the cedars revealed some interesting compositional patterns, and I was sorry I didn’t have time for a second one today. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get a second shot at this scene, either before or after the workshop.
It has been a long day, and tomorrow will be longer, so I must call it a night.
Thanks for reading.
Tags: Beaver Bluffs, Eureka Springs School of the Arts, plein air
Recollections 54 The Art of David Tripp 
May 24, 2016 at 11:58 pm |
To my eye you’ve captured that foliage beautifully against the pale background especially. A lovely painting.
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May 25, 2016 at 8:12 am |
Thank you. I have some new ideas today that I hope to try out on location.
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May 25, 2016 at 3:52 am |
I agree with the above. The touch of brown at the base of the tree gives it presence and warmth.
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May 25, 2016 at 8:14 am |
Thank you for that. I want to give the rocks another try today. Plenty of rain right now, but hopefully it will let up soon.
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May 26, 2016 at 2:37 am |
I do like your philosophical quotations, they complement your artworks. Here’s one from Maurizio Cattelan (NY artist); “I don’t know what art does for the people who look at it, but it saves the people who make it” The second part is very true for me. But I know that looking at art also stimulates my soul.
Apropos the philosophical quotation from Joyce; I once knew a genius who failed the British specialist Physician’s exit examination because he diagnosed a very rare disease correctly ( – and was the only one so to do) because the examiners said he was arrogant and over-confident.
Best of luck with the rain and the rocks!
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May 26, 2016 at 10:04 am |
I love that quote, thank you Tony! When I was younger, art did not hold the religious Center in the the way it does now in my older years. Now when I make art, I can feel my breathing change. Indeed it saves me in these precious years.
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May 26, 2016 at 5:59 pm
Just a thought about art David; There’s a Schrödinger element – Is it still art if there’s no-one there to look at it? Once the gallery is closed the pictures hanging there take on a quantum state, it is neither art nor not art.
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May 27, 2016 at 8:14 am
Fascinating perspective there. Reminds me of the Berkeley question of the tree falling in the forest.
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May 27, 2016 at 9:42 pm
Einstein apparently asked Niels Bohr, if he realistically believed that ‘the moon does not exist if nobody is looking at it.’ Bohr said that no matter how hard Einstein tried, he’d never be able to prove it does.- The whole tree falling in the forest kind of riddle is an infallible conjecture that can neither be proved nor disproved. But I like the idea of art disappearing when people stop looking at it.
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May 28, 2016 at 7:21 am
I like the point that you raise. Emerson said that nature is what it is, but art is nature commingled with human intellect. I have always been proud knowing that we are apart of the art process.
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