Working Into the Night With a Glad Heart

Not just the labor of months, that show was the work of a lifetime.

Remark about Louise Nevelson’s solo show at age 60, by Richard Lacayo, Last Light: How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph

This is my fourth day at Plein Air on the White River in Gaston’s Resort in Lakeview, Arkansas. And the first time I’ve been able to stop and post a blog. The experience has been rich indeed, and I’ll post pictures at the end of this entry. The shot above was from last night, late in the cabin, when I had time alone to resume work on a commission started last week at home. This morning I’ve moved to the bedroom to work at the window seat:

I’ll do my second art demo this afternoon at 4:00. I did my first one Tuesday during the all-day plein air workshop.

I’ve taken delight reading about the life of sculptor Louise Nevelson, finally getting recognition at age 60. And I love the insights of this entire book, about famous American artists in their senior years, still chipping away at their craft, as I do mine. When asked how long it took me to complete a current painting, my general answer is 70 years. I know that I can kick out an 8 x 10″ plein air watercolor in 60-90 minutes. But I really take seriously all that goes into making a single piece. Each of my paintings or drawings is my response to the world I encounter. I pour all my inner resources–my imagination, my education, my curiosity, my attention to detail, my critical faculty–all of this filters what I see as I translate it onto a white rectangle lying before me, waiting.

One of the many perfections of this week has been the space and quiet embracing me every day and night. I haven’t known such quiet and a “slowing down” of the world since my week on the Laguna Madre in 2015 when I worked as Artist in Residence for Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi. This morning, I feel that quiet all over again that I knew and loved in those days of painting. I also knew that yesterday all afternoon and evening till I retired to bed. No sense of time or deadlines or schedules. Just time to paint, to read, to reflect, to journal–all quality time.

I’ve made so many new and wonderful artist friends at this retreat as well. And I cannot express the depth of feeling I experience when I see so many people happily engaged in making art in the open air. I will gladly post many pictures I took of the Tuesday workshop event when they finally arrive on my email. The Wi-Fi here is slow as molasses, and I have yet to receive the photos I’ve transferred for blogging . . .

Thanks for reading.

Tags: Americana, David Tripp artist, Edward Hopper, nostalgia, Plein Air on the White River, The Gallery at Redlands, watercolor