Daniel Coston, Medieval Warren

  • Daniel Coston, “Medieval Warren”

Fayetteville artist Daniel Coston is the featured artist at Cantrell Gallery, where he’s showing his paintings of the Delta landscape’s abandoned buildings in a show called “Structures.” From Cantrell Gallery’s press release, Coston’s artist statement:

Advertisement

“In the 1960’s, Life Magazine did a special article on Andrew Wyeth, publishing several of his paintings. A lot of his work was obviously “rural” and I was taken by the paintings in the magazine and especially the way he worked. He used these “old places” to explore his feelings about life and death. I do not paint like Wyeth — he was a serious painter and his work was NOT about sentimentality. There is a feeling of harshness about his work. I see the same harshness evident in my Delta work. Structures survive if there is a reason to keep using them. If they are not useful, they are generally torn down; unless they aren’t in the way … then maybe they get left. But they get left to rot. They aren’t left as some memorial to a past life.

I am drawn to these remnants of a way of life that has mostly disappeared. I have some interest in “saving” them in painted form. I suspect that my main interest in them is the connection to my childhood, when many more of these structures were around.

The structures that I have painted for this exhibit are noticeably vertical. Anything vertical stands out on the Delta … which is obviously horizontal. For whatever reason, I find Delta landscapes interesting. It’s not JUST the old stuff or just the dilapidated. It’s not JUST how rusty something is. Things don’t have to be about a week from collapsing for me to get interested. But when I see something that can be worked up into an interesting composition … then I get interested.

But just because I get interested doesn’t mean it made it into this exhibit. I have to STAY interested — for years sometimes. And then I pull that painting back out and finish it or sand it off. Often enough, I have to be as harsh as the process that eliminates most of these Delta structures.

Some structures last and some vanish without a trace. I have managed to save a few of them. And some of them are here in this exhibition.”

The show opens with a reception tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the gallery, 8206 Cantrell Road, and runs through April 28.

Help to Keep Great Journalism Alive in Arkansas

Join the fight for truth and become a subscriber of the Arkansas Times. We've been battling powerful forces for 50 years through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, our readers value great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing and supporting our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage. Together, we can continue to hold the powerful accountable and bring important stories to light. Subscribe now or donate for as little as $1 and be a part of the Arkansas Times community.

Previous article Former forestry finance chief Robert Araiza retires Next article Harris, Uptigrove, Richard, Massey, Leflar