Artist hikes River Trail with an eye and a sketchbook

David Paul Cook 
River Trail Water Color
David Paul Cook River Trail Water Color

Every day, people go to the Arkansas River Trail to test themselves physically: They whiz down the paths on bikes or skates, or jog long distances to test their endurance. On the other end of the spectrum is David Paul Cook.

Last summer, Cook embarked on a project to walk the River Trail, journaling his experiences as he went. His was a decidedly less strenuous approach, but it was a challenging mission for Cook, who was 70 at the time.

A talented artist, Cook moves deliberately along the trail, jotting down notes and making sketches and paintings of the small wonders he observes. While others are speeding down these same pathways, Cook is eagerly taking in the sights and sounds around him, and recording his observations in a journal.

The River Trail is not exclusively the realm of bicyclists and joggers, skaters and skateboarders; this is his territory as well. Cook divided that territory into 13 manageable segments, and on a given day, he would walk one section.

He figured that each day's journey would take him about three hours: one hour to walk to a particular spot; one hour to draw, paint and take notes about the things he observed; and another hour to make the return trip.

By the time he had completed his project, he had 38 pages of drawings, paintings and notes in his journal, a beautiful and enlightening document. It is full of deft watercolor paintings and drawings coupled with his insights into the natural and urban areas he traverses.

Cook decided to test his physical limits on these trips, and he admits that he wasn't sure whether he would be able to go the distance, spending three hours a day outdoors, on his feet.

"I am 71 years old, and one of the questions I think any person has as they age is what their capabilities may still be. One of the reasons I

decided to take this on was, in a sense, to try myself out. To see whether or not I was still capable of walking for an hour, painting for an hour and walking for an hour back to the car."

He admits that there was "some question in my mind whether I was physically capable of doing this.

"So I was delighted that I could figure out a way of breaking it up into pieces, and even though it took me essentially a month and a half, off and on, to do the 13 legs, it was certainly within my capability of doing it. And I was happy to prove that to myself."

Cook feels that "there is a difference between artists and others: Most people look while artists see things.

"There are a lot of people going down the River Trail that are riding on bicycles, on inline skates; they're running, they're jogging, they're moving fast. And they are all looking, because they all manage to steer around you and not run into you ... but I don't know that they are really seeing things.

"I think the advantage for anyone who slows down their pace is that it gives them the possibility of seeing things, not just looking."

SIMPLE GEAR

He makes sure to pack light for his trips to the trail, carrying with him a camera tripod, on which he mounts an artist's easel for painting. In a backpack go paints, brushes, a sketchbook, a notebook and a pen. He takes water to drink and sometimes a little trail mix.

"I usually carry a little notebook and a pen, and as I observe trees or wildlife, I kind of make note of them," Cook says.

His process involves doing the drawings and paintings on site, but he adds notes to the artwork in the journal later, at home. "I would go to my little notebook, much like a reporter carries a notebook, and I could go back and refresh my mind about what I saw and what caught my fancy as I walked along."

As an artist, Cook has a very specific method of working when he paints and draws outdoors.

"These are all very direct drawings and very direct paintings. By that I mean looking at what's there, and with an economy of line work, or with an economy of brushstrokes, you try to capture what's there. ... It's not fancy drawing or painting by any means."

LIFETIME OF PREPARATION

Cook has been teaching watercolor painting at the Arkansas Arts Center Museum School for about a decade, passing on the ideas and techniques that he has learned over the years. Born outside Milwaukee, he went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and lived in Kansas City for 11 years before moving to Little Rock in 1985. He worked as state president of the American Lung Association until retiring in 2000.

The love of nature that is so evident in Cook's journaling was there from an early age.

"I was very much an outdoors person, and I liked to be out in the fields and the woods," he says. "I've been an artist all of my life, of sorts. Not in any kind of professional sense, but in the sense of a person who looks at things, particularly in the natural environment, and tries to, from time to time, make a record of them or an interpretation of them."

He adds, "It was kind of natural for me to take the stub of a pencil and a little bit of paper with me as I was out of doors and from time to time just make a record of what I saw, mostly just for my own satisfaction."

He clearly loves these outings. "I guess the greatest joy I have these days in art is of being afoot, or some way out of the house, and into various parts of nature, sketching and recording some of the observations that I have made."

OBSERVE AND IMAGINE

These 13 trips to the Arkansas River led Cook down wooded paths that pass through an essentially urban environment. There were many interesting things to be seen and heard along the way. Here is what Cook wrote about the third section of his River Trail excursions:

"This leg of the trail is far more primordial than yesterday's portion upriver, with the dense oak, ash, sweet gum woods to start with, and the towering cliffs of Big Rock quarry below Emerald Park. There are a lot of towering cottonwoods and tangled vine woods near the end."

Cook is filled with an abundant curiosity about the things he observes along the trail.

"There are bits and glimmers and pieces [of history], and sometimes you can get closer to them and sometimes they are going to be elusive, unless you want to become a local historian."

Every new observation poses questions that need to be answered. A sparkling patch of ground on the North Little Rock side causes him to wonder about the kind of industry that might have existed on that spot. Hedge apple trees near the Baring Cross Bridge also pique his interest. "Was there a factory here? Were people settling along the river and planting these hedge apple trees as a way of hedging in their livestock?"

It was his keen sense of art history that motivated Cook to visit an area near Cajun's Wharf restaurant. A group of early 20th-century Little Rock artists once painted at that very location. "I thought it would be kind of interesting to put my feet on the same ground that Howard Stern and Adrian Brewer might have stood on, and see what I could do from that spot."

WATER LILIES

Cook talks with fondness of a painting he made at Two Rivers Park. He remembers thinking that the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet "had some wonderful ideas about painting lily pads on still water, and here's my opportunity to stand at this place and try and do the same."

Cook describes the scene: "This slough in the fall is full of lily pads and turtles and white egrets and ducks," he says, noting wistfully that "I guess it's as close to Monet's lily pond in France as I will ever get."

Cook feels that "in many ways, my art is a very personal sort of thing. What I do is I try to make a record of what I see and what I observe, what touches my heart and soul. If I can have a chance to share that with other people and that helps them to increase the joy that they find when they are outside and see things, then that is very fulfilling."

What would Cook tell those who might be interested in taking a trip like this, down the Arkansas River Trail?

"I would just encourage them to get to a place along the trail they feel that they would like to explore," Cook says. "I think it's just a matter of, on a particular day, saying, 'Well, I think I would like to explore,' and have a go at it."

ActiveStyle on 08/18/2014

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