Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
A real object of beauty
New coffee-table book covers George Dombek’s art
FAYETTEVILLE — Watercolor painter George Dombek has a new, self-titled coffee-table book out by the University of Arkansas Press encompassing works from almost every major stage and focus of his 40-plus-year career.
The 182-page tome ($55, cloth) includes his signature birds in trees, stones, flowers, bicycles, stick figures and farm implements — paintings that collectors private and public can’t seem to get enough of.
George Dombek includes text by Henry Adams, a professor of American art at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He calls Dombek’s style “constructed realism” — an aesthetic that derives from the artist’s formal training as an architect. Dombek has a degree in architecture and a master’s degree in fine arts in painting, both from UA. He taught for a living before he was able to support himself as an artist.
For him, the book is about the artwork with flavor from the text.
“I haven’t read what he’s written, and I probably never will,” Dombek said of Adams’ contribution. It’s not that he doesn’t like Adams or his writing style — the two are good friends and have worked together on other projects — Dombek seldom reads what’s written about him.
The book took four years to publish, with a change in management at the press occurring over that time. Dombek admits his role in the delay of publication — demons of perfection.
“It’s just like a painting. You can’t make a perfect
anything,” Dombek said.
“At the end of the process, I said, ‘Let’s just do it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.’”
He said he mainly made the book to be able to give to patrons and clients to thank them for their support.
“That’s the nicest thing for me, it really is,” he said.
Mike Bieber, director of the UA Press at the time George Dombek was published, said it was an important book for the UA Press to do because so many people are taken with his work. And because the paintings in the book are inspired by nature, it fit seamlessly with the press’ interest in books that document the state’s culture and landscape, he said.
The book took longer than average to publish. “But the production value of the book is very high, and George’s standards are exacting,” Bieker said. “We happily let the process take as long as necessary to get the desired results.”
The book showcases more than 100 of Dombek’s paintings and is representative of the artist’s career in that it explains Dombek’s development as an artist and his creative process.
“I would say it’s representative, but certainly not exhaustive,” Bieker said of the book.
Some of the art featured in the book was plucked from Springdale-based food company Tyson Foods Inc., which boasts the largest corporate collection of Dombek’s works — some 80 paintings. Chairman John Tyson provided comments for the text of the book.
“I have been a fan and a collector of George’s work for 20 years or more,” Tyson said. “Like Carroll Cloar and [Donald] Roller Wilson, George is an Arkansas artist that the entire state can be very proud of.”
The book is big, with a 12 ½-by-12 ½-inch cover. It’s fitting when one considers the size of some of Dombek’s works, which require large pieces of paper to be taped together. He starts most paintings with a detailed drawing, then meticulously applies layers of watercolor to produce deep hues in varying shades. He later paints in accents like drops of water or shadows for added depth. The lines are so crisp and clean that some works have been mistaken for photographs.
While working on the text of the book, Adams stayed with Dombek at the artist’s self-designed home and ever-evolving studio on Blue Springs Road near Goshen. The place is Zen-like, with multiple gardens and fountains.
Dombek’s painting schedule is his own — he often wakes in the middle of the night and paints straight through to late afternoon. So Adams adapted. By the time most people get out of bed, both of them had done a day’s work.
The book is dedicated to his companion of 18 years, Sandy Twiggs, whose work behind the scenes is seldom seen. They married seven years ago.
Dombek covers the six aforementioned series, with farm implements falling under the distinction “Ozark Portraits” and the bicycle series being titled “Tour de Trees.”
It’s the f irst book on Dombek since the University of Central Arkansas in Conway published On a Clear Day: The Paintings of George Dombek 1975-1994 in 1995. It was such an unpleasant experience for the artist that he hasn’t wanted to do another one since then.
Adams has written some 14 books or book-length exhibition catalogs plus hundreds more publications.
“There have been earlier catalogs about his work, but they’ve been much more modest. This was quite an impressive book, I think,” Adams said. He called it “a real object of beauty.”
Writing for the book was an ardent assignment, he said, because his text was to add to the book, not overwhelm it.
As important as what’s in the book is what was left out. Toward the end of the project, Dombek decided to pull out paintings from his current infatuation — Arkansas barns.
Just as he was starting George Dombek, he set out to paint barns still standing in each of the state’s 75 counties. Works from this series are all front-facing portraits of the barns, flaws and all.
Tyson Foods recently acquired four more of these for its collection, and the UA Press is already working on a book of them to be published as early as next year.
“I’m going to keep painting them,” Dombek said. “They’re an awful lot of fun.”
Adams applauded Dombek’s ability to keep reinventing himself and his artwork.
“A lot of artists I know seem to do beautiful work and then seem to make a false step at some point,” he said. “George seems to have an amazing ability to figure out what the next move should be.
“He has a good sense of when he’s done enough in a series and when it’s time to move on,” Adams said.
Dombek painted barns for a project when he was a graduate student in the 1970s, but even as a child, he loved clambering around his dad’s old dusty barn where Dombek grew up in Paris.
Some, i ncluding Adams, declare this could be Dombek’s most successful and best-selling series yet.
“He’s been very successful regionally. I think he still has only a modest national reputation. And I think he’s sort of ready to become better known on the national scene,” Adams said.
Says Dombek: “I couldn’t live off my work for a long time. I’m not bitter about it, but I won’t say it was something I was happy about.”
He recently discovered a stash of works that he was unable to sell when he painted them 25 years ago. His growing fame and popularity have made those earlier works more valuable now. He won’t discuss prices, but the buyers have been among some of the area’s well-known power brokers and recent sales have climbed into the six-figure range.
Currently, he’s the only living artist with paintings and a sculpture in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s collection: the bronze sculpture Tour de Apple Tree (2010) and paintings Elkins Barn (2011) and Barn (1987).
Groups of art lovers and representatives from art institutions from across the country on their way to Crystal Bridges are also visiting Tyson’s collection and Dombek’s studio while they’re here.
David Sloan, a local car dealer/ businessman and fan of Dombek’s work, notes that Dombek has become a bit of a destination himself.
He has hosted museum and arts groups from Chicago; Los Angeles; Savannah, Ga.; and Oakland, Calif., to name a few. Out of about a dozen visits, representatives from all but one group bought art from Dombek while they were here.
“Crystal Bridges has just raised the awareness of art in our area tremendously and I just think we’re fortunate to have a successful, living working artist in our area,” Sloan said.
Each year, Dombek hosts an open studio over several consecutive weekends. The events are ongoing each weekend between now and Nov. 16, 1-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
More information can be found on his website, georgedombek.com.