FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Turn of the century scenes, places and activities are the focus of an exhibit of oil paintings and giclées titled “Scenes of Early Northwest Arkansas” by John Bell Jr., currently on display in Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus. Although place might seem at first glance the attention-grabber for each painting, the real effect on the viewer lies with how Bell tells the story in each painting.

Lost.

Morning Sun: The Old Washington County Courthouse.

Rendezvous: Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs.

Bell researches each setting before he begins a painting, studying postcards, early photographs, and even traveling to the location to make photographs of his own for geographic realism. Such research provides historical accuracy in details, such as the names of the stores advertising on placards visible along the street front in Parade or the view of historic Fort Smith, back when it actually was a frontier fort, from across the Arkansas River as depicted in Into the Territory and Back to the Fort from Bell’s U.S. Marshall series.

Bell says he is aiming for a “moment in time” that the viewer can “almost remember even though you may have never been there.” Local landmarks come alive in past eras, such as the Crescent and Basin Park hotels in Eureka Springs, the old Washington County Courthouse in Fayetteville and the War Eagle Mill.

But even a casual viewer can see that the places and their stories are idealized, romanticized and layered with nostalgia that is deep and pervasive. Arkansas was never this pretty. One gets the sense that Bell’s paintings are what northwest Arkansas might have looked like if Hollywood had moved in and created the sets, with breathtakingly handsome actors playing the roles. In short, it ain’t real.

But does that matter? The scenes are lovely, and no one is truly fooled by the false “memories” they invoke. Despite realizing, while viewing a painting such as Lost, that no slough in northwest Arkansas has ever looked that beautiful and inviting, the viewer may still wish that they could spend the afternoon there. The painting’s deep greens and blues lure the viewer with the tantalizing promise of getting lost, of being lost, away from the present and all of its complications and worries.

And that’s the ultimate appeal of Bell’s paintings, the pull of another time and place. It’s not real, but it feels real, like a home that awaits us.

John Bell Jr. holds a degree in fine arts from the University of Arkansas. He has worked throughout his long career as a portrait artist, a designer of model railroad kits, furniture fabric, and church windows. A commissioned portrait he painted of legendary country singer Roy Acuff, on the back of a fiddle to be presented to him on stage at the Grand Ole' Opry, is displayed in the Country Music Hall of Fame. He has exhibited one man shows in Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans; Washington D.C.; Omaha, Neb.; and Little Rock and Fort Smith, both in Arkansas.

“Scenes of Early Arkansas” by John Bell Jr. will be on display in Mullins Library through the end of October and is viewable all hours the library is open. For more information, contact 479-575-6702 or visit http://libinfo.uark.edu/info/artexhibit.asp.

A reception for the artist will be held in the Helen Robson Walton Reading Room of Mullins Library from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11. Speaking at the reception will be University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart, Pine Bluff businessman Jim Caldwell, and John Bell Jr. Light refreshments will be served.