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Amy C. Evans' Eliza had quite a large collection of ceramic birds…, 2007 16 COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JONATHAN HOPSON GALLERY OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. O ne of Texas' titans of painting passed away peacefully on Palm Sunday. That would be the beloved Richard Stout (born 1934), whose career as an artist, professor, and pillar of the Houston art scene spanned generations and eras. Arguably, Stout's fi nal decades were his most fruitful. That was when the gentlemanly elder stateman synthesized his earlier non- objective expressionism with memories of growing up in the port town of Beaumont. His paintings turned to a marriage of abstraction and representation, putting to canvas the prosaic beauty of the Texas coastal landscape alongside views of domestic spaces. In his unique paintings, rooms of man and chambers of sea and sky melded, producing shimmering images with a spiritual component that hinted at the hand of God. His fi nal years — to this writer, he was akin to our Diebenkorn — were fortuitously marked by renewed recognition, including representation by William Reaves Fine Art (now Foltz Fine Art), a touring museum retrospective, and the publication of a nuanced volume, Sense of Home: The Art of Richard Stout (Texas A&M University Press). Stout's Houston gallerist, Foltz Fine Art, plans a public tribute in the near future. foltzgallery.com. Catherine D. Anspon A PAINTER'S PASSAGE: REMEMBERING RICHARD STOUT Richard Stout at home, Houston, Summer 2017 JENNY ANTIL L CLIFTON H ouston's Best: Until we have a new normal, this column has a single- minded focus: to rally around one of the top art communities in the nation. While Houston's big-hearted restaurants are forging innovative ways to support their staff, our town's gallerists and the artists they curate are equally deserving of love and acquisitions. We inaugurate this series with Jonathan Hopson Gallery. With its handsome bungalow art space and serious programming, it's the art-world version of slow food. Conversation, careful gazing, community, and an appreciation of the artist's role in a polarized world are the calling cards of owner Jonathan Hopson's vision. A personal favorite within the gallery's talent roster is painter Bradley Kerl. The Houston artist holds degrees from two of Texas' top programs: an MFA from the University of Houston and a BFA from University of North Texas. Kerl is slated for upcoming solo exhibitions in Tokyo and at Art League Houston. His oil-on-canvas works render moments of everyday quotidian existence — equal parts mundane and sublime — in deceptively simple landscapes, still lifes, and occasional portraits that reward close looking. Like our time, they remind us of the beauty and meaning in daily ritual, the natural world, and the places and people we love. $2,000 to $18,000; inquiries, jon@jonathanhopsongallery.com. Catherine D. Anspon ART NOTES Bradley Kerl's Alligator Food, 2018 – 2019, at Jonathan Hopson Gallery O ne of the most unique art volumes this spring doubles as a cookbook. We're smitten with Chronicle Books' new release, A Good Meal Is Hard to Find: Storied Recipes from the Deep South. Co-author Amy C. Evans is a Houston talent who straddles the world of art and food — a nationally collected painter as well as a culinary historian. A Good Meal serves up an ode to the region's tradition of gathering around a home- cooked meal and represents a collaboration between Evans and James Beard-winning cook and author Martha Hall Foose, based in Mississippi. Foose crafted her recipes as a call and response to her collaborator's paintings, which were inspired by fi ctional Southern women and their prowess in the kitchen. Book $24.95 at area booksellers, amazon.com; artwork at Koelsch Gallery. Catherine D. Anspon THE ART OF S O U T H E R N COOKING LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK/TEXASDESIGNWEEK FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @TEXASDESIGNWEEK TEXAS DESIGN WEEK HOUSTON NEW DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON. Inquiries and Sponsorship Opportunities for Texas Design Week Houston and Dallas: events@texasdesignweek.com Save the Date: Texas Design Week Dallas September 21-25, 2020.