Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [12]

Detail of a photo below

By André Duvall

Beyond the 31 works of art I’ve catalogued so far in this column, there are still other paintings in Dad’s oeuvre worthy of sharing. He recently rediscovered a few more completed works, owing to searches motivated by the evolution of our Father’s Art project. He also discovered several unfinished works from many years ago that the project has inspired him to work on completing.

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.

Links to André Duvall’s Father Billy Charles Duvall’s Art

André
Duvall’s
Father

Billy
Charles
Duvall’s

Art

A Visual Index

By Moristotle

In case you haven’t noticed, the sidebar now includes a table of images representing each of my cousin Billy Charles Duvall’s artworks that have been presented in his son André’s column, “Father’s Art.” The images are not just for decoration; each of them links to the original image in the “Father’s Art” column it appeared in. All you have to do is click on the image.
    The table looks just like the one shown here, and you can get to it in either of two ways: 

• Click on its link in the Sidebar Directory, or 
• Scroll down to it (quite a ways, because the sidebar contains lots of elements, concluding with the entire collection of #tags associated with Moristotle & Co.).

The table of artwork images came about, because…Well, I’m not entirely sure now, because it was a while ago, and I actually got bogged down at one point and finally decided to just forget the whole thing. But within 24 hours my muse graced me with an avalanche of ideas for taking a better approach than I had started out with.
    Originally, the ratio of each image’s height to width (H:W) was the same as the artwork referred to. The problem with that was that I had to have a separate table for each row of images because their column widths varied and they wouldn’t stack into regular rows.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [10]

Detail from “Origin of
the Hattieville Bison”

By André Duvall

Almost all of my father’s art that I’ve presented so far have been oil paintings (except for one with acrylic and a couple of sketches). Oil painting is Dad’s preferred medium and comprises the majority of his work.
    Today’s presentation, in contrast, shares two pieces with three-dimensional elements, both created within the last eleven years. Both were inspired by objects he collected while taking walks along the several curves the Arkansas River makes between Little Rock and North Little Rock. From its banks he has collected rocks, driftwood, and plants such as trumpet vines. Both works featured below were also inspired by the bio-evolutionary and geological processes on Earth.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [9]

His Only
Self-Portrait

By André Duvall

After a long hiatus, I am excited to resume sharing more artwork of my father, Billy Charles Duvall. If you enjoy this post and his artwork, I invite you to visit any of my eight earlier Father’s Art posts on Moristotle & Co. In the first installment, on September 25, 2019, you can read some background on Dad’s hobby, and about my inspiration for this project.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [8]

Oil and acrylic on masonite; 48" x 34". July 1984.
Photo by Moristotle, 2015

Mujer Tropical

By André Duvall

Today, April 23, in honor of Billy Charles Duvall’s birthday, I offer a new installment of Father’s Art. Happy Birthday and much love, Dad!

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [7]

Detail from
original

Detail from
final

A River Journey to Paradise

By André Duvall

My Father’s Art columns up to this point have featured small groupings of paintings with some unifying theme. Today’s post describes the evolution of a single painting that Dad modified many times over the course of several years, and it was one of the paintings that were among my childhood experiences of home.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [6]

Detail of “Island Woman”

Two Paintings
and a Bonus

By André Duvall

As you may have gathered from the Father’s Art posts so far, Dad favors working with oil paint. “Island Woman” is one of the few cases in which he uses some acrylic, in order to give a flat, two-dimensional look to the black portion of the painting. He also chose to use the rough side of the Masonite to give it more of a canvas look and texture. “Island Woman” is Dad’s second open-frame painting, inspired by the use of black in his first one, which will be featured in a future post.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [5]

Detail from lead painting

Three Paintings from an Old Triptych

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).

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [4]

Detail of 3rd painting

Three Paintings of Dancers

By André Duvall

When launching this series, I envisioned each installment of my father Billy Charles Duvall’s artwork having some unifying theme, technique, or history. Dad easily came up with the theme of today’s three original works: dancing. Each painting shows a dancer in movement, drawing our eyes to the details in the folds and colors of their clothing. Dad creates striking contrasts of each dancer with the colors and stillness of the surrounding environments, yet each dancer seems right at home.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [3]

Detail of “Passing”

Four Original Paintings

By André Duvall

Today I present four original paintings by my father, Billy Charles Duvall. The first and fourth of them incorporated elements from photographs in books.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [2]

“Two on the Aisle” (detail)

Three Paintings as Reproductions

By André Duvall

The following three works are studies that my dad painted as “reproductions” of the works of other artists, working from photographs of them in art magazines. Dad had purchased several antique magazines at annual book sales at local libraries and estates sales, etc. Studying such magazines was one way he continued to learn about painting, expand his skill set, and refine his technique. Dad says, “I forced myself to get as close as possible to the painter’s original colors and brushstrokes,” based solely on his own “observations, experimentation, and trial and error.” He did not sign his name on these. He did not feel it was proper to do so, and he did not want anyone to misinterpret his intentions.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [1]

Detail from “October 1978”

Introductory

By André Duvall

With great respect and admiration, I am delighted to present the first in a series of posts sharing the artwork of my father, Billy Charles Duvall. Painting – primarily oil on canvas – has been one of his hobbies since 1978. A self-taught painter, he has had a lifelong interest in the work of artists from varied cultural backgrounds, and in reflecting their art in his own experiments with structural, artistic additions to his home, inside and out.