Bev Doolittle
The Art of Bev Doolittle & Bev Doolittle, New Magic
by Elise Maclay
Bev Doolittle (b. 1947) captured the attention and eyes of many, including your commentator, Fall 1979 with the release of limited-edition prints of her painting titled Pintos. It is the art that is on the cover of the black-bordered book.
While I’m not amongst those who own one of those prints, having these two books about Bev Doolittle and her art enables me to now share them with you. Best yet, should you want your own copy, they are still kept in print. By the time New Magic published five years after that first one, over 350,000 copies of the first had sold as it had already been reprinted nine times up to then.
If you are familiar with the publisher, you may already know The Greenwich Workshop has been in business since the earliest 1970s publishing and selling very high quality fine art prints and books. To the current day, Bev continues to create her originals even as Greenwich continues publishing fine art prints of them. Thus this commentary can serve as an introduction to Bev Doolittle and her art for those not already aware of her.
Bev is Southern California-born and -raised. She and Jay Doolittle met while students at Art Center, now located in Pasadena, but at that time still on its original campus in Hollywood. Outdoors people, they enjoyed hiking, biking, and experiencing all aspects of the natural world. Eventually they went on the road in their camper traveling to experience nature as well as to sell their art at fairs and shows. Gradually they built their following, and awareness, particularly of Bev’s paintings, broadened.
Today Jay and Bev live in a fabulous house they had built for them in Joshua Tree, California that also includes each of their studios. The structure so totally blends into the natural surroundings as to be all but invisible. It was designed as a collaborative effort between Jay and Bev and architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg.
As to her artworks, hopefully you’ve spotted all five horses in Pintos. Now turn your attention to Season of the Eagle (above) finished in 1988 featuring three-fold more riders echoed by their own reflection and seemingly being overflown by their sacred brother, the eagle. Indians considered eagles the embodiment of power and freedom as well as the Great Spirit’s direct messenger to them thus a very good omen to these Crow Indians as that make their way in springtime, with snow remaining in cracks and crevasses, to their hunting grounds,
The second book, New Magic, shows on its cover a painting Bev titled “The Sentinel” described as “a virtual compendium of Doolittle’s favorite subjects—nature, Native America Indians, horses, sacred symbols and hidden images.” It also incorporates an idea given her by son Jayson, then around six years of age. Bev and Jay had been discussing ideas for this painting and Bev, wanting to include a rainbow, was struggling with how to make all the elements fit together when Jayson piped up saying “Why don’t you reflect the rainbow?” As with other of her works, finished paintings become “visual summation[s] of her environmental convictions.”
The page pair from inside New Magic (immediately above) is of High Life and also permits you to see features included throughout both books. Bev creates individual study sketches for each element “detail of composition, perspective and color value [thus] painting for Bev Doolittle is a peaceful, reflective process.” Having worked out all the visual and technical details beforehand, while she paints Bev actually concentrates on and contemplates the meaning and significance of each living creature, each inanimate object, the mysteries of life, and the interconnectedness of all.
Beautiful books of beautiful art. What more could you ask for?
Copyright 2024 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)
The Art of Bev Doolittle
by Elise Maclay
The Greenwich Workshop, 1990
160 pages, 121 color & 7 b/w studies/sketches, hardcover
indexed by titles of artworks
List Price: $60
ISBN 13: 0 86713 008 3
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