Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [11]

Billy Charles Duvall

By André Duvall

La Vision de Guillermo: The idea for the first painting (see below) came from a pamphlet purchased at a book sale at the Little Rock public library entitled “Bolivia,” from Nov. 1, 1917. The pamphlet contained many photographs, including one taken at night with the caption, “A Pack Train of Llamas in La Paz, Bolivia – Twilight.” Dad’s llamas are based on the first two shown in that photo. Lights from the buildings are shining, casting shadows.

La Vision de Guillermo. August 31, 1980.
9" x 12". Oil on Canvas Panel.

    The boy and the llamas are looking up at the night sky, when they see a vision of a crucifix. The boy’s expression is inspired by the look of the llamas at the front. They appear as though they are seeing something surprising.
    The wall is also from the photo, as are the balconies and arched door. Dad added some details, including a window. The supposed apparition was going to be reflected in the window, but Dad ran out of room. Nevertheless, you can see the edge of a crucifix.

Untitled

Untitled. Years ago. 4" tall x 6" wide.
(A selection from the original painting,
which is 20" tall x 16" wide. Oil on stretched canvas.)

This untitled painting is a portion of a larger painting that Dad created years ago. The setting is somewhere in the Andes Mountains at twilight. The two native people had been herding llamas, and had stopped for the night, because dark was falling. Without giving away what is in the rest of the painting, I will tell you what Dad told me: Upon revisiting the original, he wanted to adjust the perspective, making it appear as though the herders were on a high mountain looking down, rather than camped below a mountain. Concluding that the painting was unfinished, he experimented with darkening some of the background color to heighten the sense of darkness.
    But he also felt that the image shown above would work well as a stand-alone painting, and he considered extracting it from the original by cutting it out and framing it. But doing that would have risked damaging the desired portion, not to mention the original!
    Dad brainstormed ways to carefully extract the image without damage, and to recreate the extracted portion to restore the original, but he concluded it would be too difficult and risky. He was at peace with just imagining it extracted. When I visited him and took these photos, we placed a temporary frame on top of the extraction to replicate what a framed, extracted version might look like.
    Dad is working on alterations to the rest of the painting, and had planned to work with me on a follow-up post once the painting is complete. With the announcement of Moristotle’s well-deserved retirement, the rest of the painting will remain a mystery, at least for the immediate future, perhaps until another venue for display develops.

Copyright © 2023 by André Duvall & Billy Charles Duvall