The artist Charles Harrington has spent much of the year traversing the wilds of Arkansas in search of subject matter to paint. During the year, he made small plein air studies for larger works of art, and took digital photographs to capture the light and color of nature. Harrington then returned to his Bella Vista studio and painted. The fruits of Harrington's year-long labors are on display in his exhibit "The Journey," hanging through Jan. 9 at Greg Thompson Fine Art in North Little Rock.
Harrington has the unusual ability to make acrylic paint mimic watercolor, a medium he used for many years. Although his paintings can be fairly tightly rendered, as in the excellent painting Sugar Creek, his brushwork is always loose and fluid.
Two of the larger works in this show are Fall at Bella Vista Lake (48 by 60 inches) and Blue Heron and Lily Pads (48 by 68 inches), which showcase the painter's trademark style. Harrington says he "likes to make the viewer feel as if they could step right into the painting," and these large canvases achieve that goal.
A small but pretty painting in this show is View From a Deck, a tangy burst of bright colors that the artist had merely to step out his back door to create. Winter Colors is a cool symphony composed of a rolling stream, trees and snow-covered ground. In the painting Hillside Cedar, a hillside cuts diagonally across a beautiful, modulated sky.
Harrington's color palette is subtle and restrained, with small areas of intense color he uses strategically to lead viewers through the composition. When asked about color usage, Harrington chuckles and notes that these areas were called "spice spots" by an artist he once knew, because just one dollop of bright color can spice up a canvas.
In Cardinal and Wisteria, Harrington weaves together a beautifully disordered tangle of wisteria vines, inserting a red-headed cardinal in the mix as the "spice spot." This painting is elegantly composed and the color choices are sophisticated.
The painting Old But Not Forgotten is built on strong diagonal lines, as an Indian church in Oklahoma is spotlighted against a dark, ominous sky. The image has a hard-edged power to it, and Harrington shows tremendous facility in painting the weathered facade of the church.
There are paintings from every season, and they depict some of Arkansas' greatest treasures, from the beautiful Buffalo River, which Harrington says "has always been a special place to me," to the serene majesty of Petit Jean Mountain.
We are lucky to have this talented, energetic 80-year-old roaming the state and the region, documenting its natural beauty. He is quite a productive painter and he has also been a teacher for many years. Harrington has written a book called Acrylics: The Watercolor Way that showcases the techniques he has used to create watercolor on paper. More of his work can be seen on his website, charlesharrington.com.
Charles Harrington's "The Journey," through Jan. 9, Greg Thompson Fine Art, 429 Main St., North Little Rock. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Info: gregthompsonfineart.com or (501) 664-2787.
Style on 12/22/2015