FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 1ST, 2013
"THE WORLD OF ARTHUR BLANCHARD”---FOR OVER FORTY YEARS, 87 YEAR OLD DALLAS ATTORNEY TURNED ARTIST CAPTURED “PORTRAITS OF A DALLAS LIFE” WHILE RIDING D.A.R.T.!
On Saturday, October 26th (3—6 pm) Beaux Arts Gallery, located in the Dallas Design District, will host a reception featuring a collection of bold figurative works by Dallas artist Arthur Blanchard. From expressive charcoal nudes to colorful oil portraits rendered with bold brushstrokes and stark simplicity, Blanchard draws and paints with unfiltered realism.
A particular highlight of the show are the “DALLAS BUS PEOPLE” which Blanchard began drawing in the 1970’s while riding DART to work downtown and continued to create almost daily for over 40 years. A portion of the approximately 300 “Bus” works, rendered in pencil and pen, some with watercolor, charcoal or paint added later, will be on display. These moving portraits are a rare representation of the sheer range of humanity which has utilized DART over the last few decades-- people of all creeds and colors, shapes and sizes, all observed by Blanchard with warm detachment and piercing artistic precision. When asked what his inspiration was to start drawing the people of DART, Blanchard replied—“Drawing and sketching are just what I do. It’s as natural a thing for me as it is for other people to strike up a conversation with a stranger. I’ve always had a democratic eye for the color and shapes which interest me, and I find the human form in all its variety endlessly fascinating. I really like these people.”
As a testament to the momentum building around his work, one of Blanchard’s paintings of the “Bus People” will be sold at auction by David Dyke in January of 2014. Even now, with his loft/studio located at 842 First Avenue, across from the State Fair Buildings, Blanchard continues to ride Dallas area buses and to draw and paint, inviting local street people and other denizens into his studio to be captured in various artistic forms.
Arthur Blanchard is best known in Dallas as a prominent banking attorney, starting the practice of law in 1963 and later co-founding the still-extant Payne and Blanchard, a firm which he co-founded and then retired from is 1984, largely in order to pursue his art. On the subject of his relatively early retirement, Blanchard states—“Retirement cured my kidney stones and bad back, and gave me more time to take classes and study”. His clients included Republic National Bank and other regional banks, and he co-founded the Texas Bank Lawyers Association , but his colleagues and friends always knew Blanchard as the lawyer whose imaginative “desk doodles” and constant sketching were a recognized feature of his daily practice.
Among the other featured works are striking self-portraits, a range of figurative paintings of models encountered by the artist near his Dallas studio, and a particularly moving piece entitled “Sports Coat” which depicts a man seemingly down on his luck at the end of a long evening of drinking and card playing. Blanchard draws his inspiration largely from the people around him, but also from religious iconography and photojournalism. A particularly moving series of five intensely pigmented oil paintings are entitled “Moving Africa” and feature African refugees being forced out of their homes by political upheaval. Blanchard is philosophical about being “discovered” at this stage of life, and while he is not fond of too much intrusion in his daily routine, his is nonetheless grateful that his work will, through this show and through public recognition of the “Bus People”, find a larger audience to support the evergreen adage from Betty Friedan: “Age is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”
BEAUX ARTS GALLERY is located at 1505 Hi Line Drive , Dallas, TX 75207 and can be reached at info@beauxartsart.com as well as by phone at 214-741-5555. Founded by Bob Schutze in 1988, BEAUX ARTS provides art and advisory services to individuals and corporations throughout the United States.