"I paint the things people sort of walk past without stopping," says artist Kenneth Lee Davis. Davis is a student at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith in the 60-plus program -- which allows Arkansas residents age 60 and over to enroll in classes with a waived tuition -- and has a collection of urban landscape paintings now on display in the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center through January.
"And there's no reason anybody should stop and look at an empty gas station. [The subjects] are kind of personal to me. They excite me when I first see them. I don't know why I feel the way that I do about these things, I just go with it."
FAQ
‘UAFS Painting Studies’
WHEN — Through Jan. 3
WHERE — Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center, UAFS, Fort Smith
COST — Free
INFO — 788-7300
After a successful art and design career in television, Davis made the decision to get back into fine art (his undergraduate degree at Oklahoma State University was originally fine art). Before getting back into classes, Davis's work fell into a more polished style: photorealism. Through art courses at UAFS -- especially Special Projects Painting and Advanced Painting -- Davis is encouraged to expand his use of color and to blur the lines of reality. And the university's accessible gallery space allows students like Davis the experience of a solo show.
"Nothing is painted to completion. The only things that are painted to completion are the things that are essential to the paintings. It's about space and saying a lot more with less," he says of the 17 pieces in the display "UAFS Painting Studies, 2013-2016." "The main thing I want people to see is how they're put together. They look pretty realistic from a distance. Then, I encourage people to get as close as possible to see how I did that -- looking at the raw work that's putting it together and then get across the room and see what it does. [It's] the illusion of shapes and light and shadow."
NAN What's Up on 12/09/2016