https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jun/02/paper-trails-edwin-brewer-paintings-to-be-the/

The artist Edwin Brewer was best known for his landscapes and still lifes painted in watercolor or oils. Art was a family pursuit: He and and his twin brother, Adrian, who were born Jan. 9, 1927, in Little Rock, and were the sons of Adrian Sr., and grandsons of Nicholas Richard Brewer, were both renowned artists.

Along with being a working artist, Edwin taught art at Little Rock University, now known as the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and other schools.

He was the first curator of the Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile and a founding member of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. He and his wife moved to Santa Barbara, Calif., in the late 1970s to be near their daughters, and Edwin was an active member of the art community there. He died of heart failure on Dec. 14, 2002.

Fifteen years later, eight Edwin Brewer paintings that were inspired by his visits to a Santa Barbara jazz club were donated to the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland, who hope to preserve those works along with the pencil-drawn blueprints of the 1940s restoration of Taborian Hall, the historic 1918 building at 800 W. Ninth St., in Little Rock that houses Dreamland Ballroom and Arkansas Flag and Banner.

Four of the paintings have been framed, and the Dreamland group is raising funds to pay for framing the rest. The project also aims to raise money for sealing the building -- which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 -- and installing a heating and air system in the third-floor ballroom, both measures that would allow the display of the paintings, blueprints, artifacts and other exhibits.

The paintings, which vary in size and show musicians like Louis Armstrong, are different from Edwin's usual subjects, says Matthew McCoy, director of Friends of Dreamland.

"It was only late in life that he did figure paintings. This was one of his first, if not very first, series involving people ... you can see his journey in figuring out (figurative paintings)."

The vibrant works, which were donated by Brewer's son-in-law, Don Wood, go well with the colors of Dreamland, McCoy notes, and will be framed in simple, wooden frames.

"These paintings are so colorful, we don't feel like they need anything really fancy," he says.

In 2018, Friends of Dreamland was awarded a $499,668 African American Civil Rights Preservation grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service to work on the restoration of the building, which should be open in the fall, McCoy says.

"That became our big focus, and now we are getting our attention back to the Edwin Brewer paintings and some other artifacts we've gotten."

Email: sclancy@adgnewsroom.com