Past Exhibit - Beauty and the Brush
Beauty and the Brush
(Main Lobby Area, Mullins Library)
“Beauty and the Brush” showcases art works that were created in the fifth annual Garvan Woodland Gardens plein-air painting event, held on April 3-5, 2006. A plein-air event involves painting a natural outdoor scene in open daylight. This year’s invitational event drew eighteen professional artists from six states.
Boulders and rocks transform natural streams into “water features” throughout the Gardens, such as the short waterfall in Eric Maurus’s “The Dragon’s Staircase.” Trails and pathways that wind leisurely through the lush specimen plantings are depicted in Deleen Davidson’s “Flowering Border” and Laura Reilly’s “Bridge into Springtime.” Over 80,000 tulips, daffodils and other flowering bulbs provide the brilliant color that glows in many of the paintings, such as Bill Garrison’s “In the Rain” and Carole Katchen’s “Magic Carpet.”
The artists’ works were displayed in the Pratt Welcome Center at the Gardens through April. Then one painting from each artist was selected for inclusion in a yearlong traveling exhibit, underwritten by the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission. Additional venues on the tour include the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado, the Arkansas River Valley Arts Center in Russellville, the Ozark Heritage Arts Center in Leslie, the Winthrop Rockefeller Center in Morrilton, and the Hot Springs Convention Center in Hot Springs.
