 |
| Detail from lead painting |
By André Duvall
Today’s three paintings were originally conjoined on one 6" x 12" piece of Masonite, which my father divided with painted black lines into segments of equal length. Dad completed the center and right paintings in 1988, but “painter’s block” kept him from completing the left side until a few weeks ago (32 years later!) – when I told him that I planned to arrive in town to catalogue another set of paintings for a Father’s Art post, he rediscovered the incomplete triptych, and upon viewing the vacant spaces in the left-side painting, knew suddenly, after all these years, how to complete the painting and what it would be titled (the other two paintings are untitled).
His original plan was for all three paintings to display water. The first two present water from two perspectives: underwater and above water. His inspiration for completing the third panel was to show water, but in a different form. With a saw, he separated the Masonite into three panels, purchased frames the day I arrived, and told me he would surprise me with the content of the left panel on my next trip. We catalogued the first two paintings, and then added the third on a subsequent trip.
Untitled:
 |
| Oil on Masonite, 6" x 4". 1988. (Originally the r i g h t s e c t i o n of the 6" x 12" panel: an underwater scene.) |
A fish serves as a focal point of this ocean scene, flanked by portions of coral reef and seaweed on the lower left and right sides, respectively. Bubbles escape from the fish’s gills. The fish might be swimming in a crevice of a rock, as there is a clear rock face on the upper left side. In the foreground on the lower right side, you can use your imagination to interpret the different shapes, which may represent coral and plant life and rocks. Behind this, rocks on the right side fade out into the distance because of the water. Dad says he made up the fish – its features were not intentionally based on a particular species.
I love how Dad uses foreground and background to capture both details in the foreground and the less-distinct features of whatever lies beyond.
Untitled:
 |
| Oil on Masonite, 6" x 4". 1988. (Originally the m i d d l e s e c t i o n of the 6" x 12" panel: an overwater scene.) |
Dad says that most people who have viewed this painting think they see mountains. He agrees that the two sloped shapes look like mountains, but they are actually waves in a rough sea, in the middle of the ocean. You wouldn’t want to be out there in a boat, he says. They are big waves, although they look even more imposing because of the size of the seagull. The color of ocean water depends some on the light. Here, the sun is out, creating beautiful blues.
Dad wishes he had taken better care of the previous two paintings – the panel had lain in a box in the corner of a room. He cleaned them up as best as he could, but there are still a few spots.
West Texas Squall Line:
 |
| Oil on Masonite, 6" x 4". Unfinished in 1988 – completed in June 2020. (Originally the l e f t s e c t i o n of the 6" x 12" panel: water in the air, vapor and precipitation.) |
Dad’s goal in this painting was to emphasize the vastness of the clouds over the land, and the power of thunderstorms: updrafts, downdrafts. Thunderstorms can hold the energy stored in many atomic bombs. Squall lines can sometimes pass quickly, but other times develop into something serious. This looks like a serious one here, Dad says. A mesa is in the distance on the left, and a hill appears closer to the viewer. There is an open portion of sky in the lower right corner. The sun has probably already set, giving the sky a yellow hue. You can see this yellow reflected on the clouds at the top of the painting. The squall line is moving toward the open sky. Cirrus clouds, which float at a higher altitude than the rain clouds, can be seen in the open sky region. Along the horizon, it looks like it is raining, and maybe a tornado is forming (Dad uses just a light layer of black paint here). The yellow blooms on the cactus in the foreground were added sometime later, when making a few finishing touches.
| Copyright © 2020 by André Duvall & Billy Charles Duvall |
André (and Billy Charles), please forgive my negligence in not leaving a comment. I should at least have copied here what I said in my email to you right after I saw photographs of these paintings for the first time: “My amazement and appreciation of your father’s art grows and grows with each wondrous new work revealed to my incredulous eyes!”
ReplyDeleteAnd Vic Midyett (with whose wife Shirley’s paintings you are familiar) emailed me: “I LOVE [Billy Charles Duvall’s] work.” I think I didn’t share that here at the time because Vic also said, “...especially the second one with the bird in the mountains.” I did point out to Vic, however, that “I see that you are like some of the second painting’s other viewers André mentions, who mistake the ocean waves for mountains!”