"There's The Door"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I just returned from my second visit to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  I love the museum.  It's located in Bentonville, Arkansas - in the northwest corner of the state.  It's a small town, home of the Walton family who started Walmart years ago.  Alice Walton has been an art collector for decades and built this museum and is currently building a second one in town.  It's free admission and free parking.  It's so worth the trip.

I landed there on the final weekend of their exhibition The Beyond: O'Keeffe and Others.  Spectacular variety of many O'Keeffe's landscapes, flowers, etc mixed with other contemporary artists.  The painting above is one of my personal favorites - Black Patio Door.  It was hanging on this saturated turquoise wall that was so unexpected but so freakin' perfect.

O'Keeffe, in 1945, purchased and restored a 5,000 square foot ruined Spanish Colonial home in a small town, Abiquiu, New Mexico, which she owned until her death in 1986. She was in love with the simple beauty of the adobe house and its spaces and vistas inspired many paintings done through the years - especially the large enclosed patio.  She was quoted "When I first saw the Abiquiu house it was a ruin with an adobe wall around the garden broken in a couple of places by falling trees.  As I climbed and walked about the ruin I found a patio with a very pretty well house and bucket to draw up water. It was a good-sized patio with a long wall with a door on one side. The wall with a door in it was something I had to have."