Hot Springs native and nationally recognized watercolorist Richard Stephens recently had his painting "Majestic Side Door" selected for the Bronze Award in the 45th annual Mid-Southern Watercolorist Juried Exhibition, now showing at the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock.
Stephens said in a news release, "I painted this sitting in the back of my old Jeep SUV, seeking some shelter from a steady rain on a very cold and windy day in Hot Springs."
He was participating in a plein-air event and this was his first painting on the first day. "Raindrops actually helped create some of the foreground texture," he said.
"My subject was a section of the famous Majestic Hotel, one of the Grand Old Ladies of the South. The hotel had sat empty for several years and was in a state of decay, inside and out. I think this watercolor captures a suggestion of that decay. Unfortunately, a few months after I did this painting, the Majestic was lost to a tragic fire. I'm so glad I recorded this moment."
The artist has other paintings of the Majestic Hotel hanging in The Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs, 626 Central Ave., which can be viewed during today's Gallery Walk event.
Mid-Southern Watercolorists was founded in 1970 and includes more than 200 members in states across the mid-South. It is one of the largest, most active art societies headquartered in Arkansas.
Entertainment on 03/06/2015