" OLD ADOBE-WHITE-WINGED DOVES "
Robert Bateman

950 s/n Paper
8.5" x 11.25"
$75

"We visited this old fort and monastery in the Big Bend country of Texas on a birding
expedition a few years ago. These old Spanish buildings of the Southwest combine
elegance and earthiness in a way I find very satisfying. Built of adobe and other
local materials that the Pueblo Indians have used for thousands of years, they
are classically balanced, harmonious, and restrained. New buildings don’t often
appeal to me as subjects, but I enjoy painting older ones, which have become
weathered and worn in ways that tell each building’s story. Here, for instance,
you can see at the top of the door a place where a leak in the roof may have
been patched years ago.  Doves, which are thought of as peaceful and rather
domestic birds, seemed to me appropriate for this setting. These white-winged
doves are typical of this countryside around the Mexican border. I wanted this
painting to be essentially a series of flat planes viewed from different distances
and different angles.  Apart from the one low wall, I wasn’t showing the tops
and bottoms of the planes, and I had to give the viewer the information needed
to understand what they are, by conveying texture and light.  One of the solutions
was to recreate a spider’s web pattern of cracks in the adobe, which then is
foreshortened when seen from an angle." - Robert Bateman

  

- Old Adobe White-winged Doves - Robert Bateman

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