Deep In the Art of Texas: A Century of Paintings and Drawings

Deep In the Art of Texas:  A Century of Paintings and Drawings

The following is excerpted from "Deep In the Art of Texas:  A Century of Paintings and Drawings", published by the TCU Press and featuring essays by J.P. Bryan, Michael Duty, and Dr. Ron C. Tyler.  The book was published in conjunction with an exhibition that will be on view at the Art Museum of South Texas until Jan.4, 2015.  The book and exhibition were a collaboration between the Bryan Museum in Galveston, Texas and the Center for Texas Studies at TCU. This excerpt is from my essay, "Frontier Images and Modern Views:  The Bryan Museum Collection of Texas Art." I was pleased to serve as guest curator for the exhibition and editor of the book.

Merritt Mauzey, A Church in Galveston (detail),1935
23"x29", oil on canvas

Few people would argue with the notion that Texas has had a particularly rich and colorful history.  One of only three states to have once been a Republic, Texas has emerged in the 21^st century as one of the most populous states in the nation with three of the country’s largest cities within its borders, an economy that has been buoyed by new developments in oil and gas extraction technology and a burgeoning high tech sector. Its population has rapidly diversified in recent years to the point where there is no longer a majority ethnicity.  

Theodore Gentilz, "Corrida de la Sandia San Antonio (Dia de San Juan)"7"x9.5",
1848, oil on canvas

In many ways Texas’ blending of cultural groups, its reliance on a variety of economic forces and the direction of its population growth point toward the future of the United States as a whole.  Yet for many, not the least of which are Texans themselves, the image of the state is more deeply rooted in its history rather than in its present or future.  The Texas that is often conjured up in the popular imagination is a land of sparsely populated wide open spaces more closely akin to a scene from the movie, “Giant,” than bustling and cosmopolitan urban centers.

Such a persistent dichotomy between entrenched image and modern reality has not been lost on those folks charged with creating a less stereotypical portrait of the state.  The city of Houston, for example, has recently embarked on an ad campaign that cleverly points up the differences between what many people think Houston to be and what it, in fact, is.  In one television spot, Jim Parsons, the star of the popular series, “The Big Bang Theory,” and a Houston native tells viewers that he has lived in both New York City and Houston and saw more horses in New York and more art in Houston.  The ad which is aimed at people beyond both Houston’s and Texas’ borders works precisely because the prevailing image of the city and state is not one that conjures up fine art centers and a long history of artistic development.

Jose Arpa y Perea, A Laborer, San Antonio,
1903, 35"x20.75", oil on canvas

The idea that one can see an abundance of art in cities like Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio, not to mention El Paso, Midland, Tyler, Corpus Christi, or even little, Albany is quite farfetched for those who still see the state through the lens of an increasingly distant past.  As is often the case, that lens did not lend itself to a particularly accurate view of the state’s history in the first place.  While the popular media often characterizes Texas as a land of cowboys, Comanches, and capitalists (the latter primarily falling into the “wheeler-dealer” category immortalized by the TV series, “Dallas”), the actual history of Texas is both more subtle and more grand.  And yes the state can boast an abundance of art scattered in cities large and small within its vast borders. And yes, art has been created in Texas even during the earliest days of statehood.

Reid Kendrick Crowell, Portrait of a Black Cowboy,
21.5"x17.5", oil on canvas

Surprising to some, perhaps, is the fact that the development of a thriving and dynamic art community in Texas is not a particularly recent phenomenon.  As the paintings in the current exhibition, Deep In the Art of Texas, Selections from the Bryan Museum Collection,  attest, Texas has long been home to talented artists who have created images of the state, its land, people, and culture, that present a multi-faceted, highly diverse, and stylistically varied history of the region.  The exhibition is currently on display at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, where it will remain until January 4, 2015.  The paintings in the exhibition and the larger collection assembled by the museum’s founder, JP Bryan reveal much about the state’s history and much about its artistic heritage.  All of the paintings in the current exhibition will be showcased in the Bryan Museum in Galveston, Texas, which is set to make its debut next spring.

William Lester, Yellow House, 19.5"x20.75", oil on panel

To be certain, there are numerous images in the exhibition and collection that fall within the parameters of what many people expect to see in Texas.  For example, Texas’ heritage as the home of the cowboy is well represented, which is highly appropriate given the fact that the figure of the cowboy is really a Texas creation.  Following the Civil War, thousands of hardy longhorn cattle roamed freely over the south Texas plains, a ready supply of beef for the burgeoning cities rapidly developing all across the country.  The problem was how to get the supply to the demand.  Enter the Texas cowhand who blended the traditions of the Mexican vaquero and the Southeastern cow herder.  The image of the cowboy quickly became a favorite subject of both artists and writers and the image of Texas as a land of sagebrush, cactus, and distant horizons was fixed in much of the popular imagination. 

Harry Anthony DeYoung, Pinnacle Rocks in Fort Davis,
1927, 29.5"x34.75", oil on canvas

Such images tell only part of the story. Texas was and is much more than cowboys and cattle. The Bryan Museum Collection offers a wide survey of the art of Texas over roughly a century, including images that speak more to the urban nature of Texas than its frontier roots. In terms of subjects, styles, and artistic techniques, the collection is as varied as the Texas landscape and as nuanced as the many cultures that make up the personality of the state.

Florence Elliot McClung, Preston Road Farm,1940,
17.5"x19", oil on canvas

The exhibition covers a lot of territory, both literally and figuratively. It ranges across several decades beginning with the earliest days of Texas’ statehood and ending with the state’s shift from a rural population to a largely urban one in the 1950s.  It is geographically diverse as well, with images of East Texas cotton fields, scenes painted along the Gulf Coast, early modernist interpretations of North Texas farms, landscapes from the Davis Mountains in West Texas, and of course, wild flower studies from Central Texas.  Stylistically, the exhibition moves from the realism of Captain Arthur T. Lee’s study of an adobe house in Fort Davis to William Lester’s surrealistic take on a farm house painted nearly one hundred years later.  In short, the exhibition, and the collection it is drawn from, constitutes a tour of Texas geography, Texas history, and Texas art.

While sheer variety is one hallmark of the Bryan collection, artistic excellence is another.  Bryan’s choice of the individual components of the collection reveals a sharp eye and highly developed aesthetic sense. Not only does the collection include works by most of the major figures in early Texas art, but paintings of a high caliber of quality as well.  Dawson Dawson-Watson’s Cotton Pickers, is arguably among the artist’s finest works, as is Florence McClung’s Preston Road Farm, and Merritt Mauzey’s A Church in Galveston. Bryan has built a collection that presents a broad overview of Texas art, but also narrow’s the focus to truly exceptional works of art.

Such a combination of the “big picture” view of the whole of early Texas art along with an emphasis on individual masterworks, allows one the opportunity of seeing the great panorama of Texas art unfold, while at the same time concentrating on the contributions of a number of unique artistic talents.

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, Market Plaza, 1880,
23.5"x41.5", oil on canvas

  

Dawson Dawson-Watson, Cotton Pickers,
29.5"x39.5", oil on canvas

Much changed in Texas during the time frame covered by the exhibition and much changed in the world of American art during that same time period.  As Texas was poised to enter a new era at the midpoint of the twentieth century, one that would be marked by an increasingly urban population shift, its artists were searching for new ways to express themselves and the themes that had long been rooted in Texas history.  That search would naturally lead many away from the styles and techniques of Texas’s earliest artists. 

 Artists such as Otis Dozier, Everett Spruce,  William Lester and Merritt Mauzey refined their skills and developed distinctive styles while living in Dallas, which had surpassed San Antonio by the mid twentieth century as the leading art center in the state.  These artists brought new perspectives to many of the subjects and locales that earlier artists had explored.  One of the great advantages of the Bryan collection is that it offers dramatic comparisons between traditional and modernist viewpoints.  It offers a sweeping overview of early Texas art over a period of time that saw the state move from an era of budding villages and frontier towns to one with booming modern cities.  Along the way a complex identity was formed that mixes healthy doses of myth, romance, and reality.

Robert Julian Onderdonk, Noontime on a Clear Day, Southwest Texas, 1916
9.5"x13.5", oil on canvas mounted on board.

  

Everett Spruce, Big Bend, 1945, 23.25"x35.25", oil on board

Texas artists have played a key role in both reflecting and developing that identity.  Today the art of Texas is as multifaceted as the state itself.  Texas artists are a diverse group, hard to categorize, and difficult to pigeonhole.  Like their predecessors they contribute to an evolving state personality and offer cogent commentary on that personality.  Earlier Texas artists played much the same role.  We can see how the state developed through their eyes and their talent at presenting different viewpoints and visions.  Those visions are preserved and presented through the Bryan collection which offers a glimpse into a unique environment and history.  The Bryan Collection does indeed cover a lot of territory from mountain peaks to coastal towns.  It presents a dynamic picture of Texas over a critical period of time, a picture that is sometimes surprising and always fascinating.

Jose Arpa y Perea, Big Bend, West Texas, ca.1928, 13"x20.25", oil on canvas

(all photos are courtesy of the Bryan Museum, Galveston, TX and the Center for Texas Studies at TCU)

A Sense of Place

Dawn Bloom, Texas Sage, Chisos Dawn by Lindy Severns; pastel, 18"x38"

I grew up in a part of North Texas not known for the beauty of its landscape.  In fact, just the opposite 

was true.  Whatever charms my hometown could boast of (and I have to admit a certain bias here based on my tendency over the years to argue that there were few charms indeed) grand and compelling vistas were not among them.  It occurred to me in my formative years that one could choose any point on the compass and travel fifty miles in that direction and find an appreciably more pleasant and appealing terrain.  There may be others who delighted in that North Texas landscape, but simply put, I was not one of them.  Although it was my home territory, I did not connect with it on an aesthetic level; it did not move me toward a deeper appreciation of the beauty of my natural surroundings.  

Gifts from Yesterday's Storm by Lindy Severns, pastel, 34"x26"

Fortunately at a relatively early age, I was introduced to the rugged beauty and grandeur (at least to me) of Northern New Mexico and I have been hooked ever since.  Each time that I return, I feel the same deep affinity for the place.  For whatever reason, I connect with this land in a way that I never did with my actual home.

While I can try to capture my feelings about this particular place and convey that emotion with words, I am envious of those artists who can impart to the viewer a deep, visceral feeling about their favorite places.  These artists are able to show us not only what a place looks like, but also how it feels to them.  When we look at their paintings, we stand in their shoes and we at least have a hint at what they were feeling when they first looked upon the scene painted.  Because their emotions were so touched by their connection to that special terrain, our emotions are engaged as well.  Many artists have told me that one of their goals in painting is to allow the viewer of their art to see the world as they do, and just as importantly, to feel the same emotions.

Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin by Thomas Moran, chromolithograph

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran, oil on canvas

One can readily see and feel the profound effect that Yellowstone had on Thomas Moran.  He traveled there for the first time in 1871 and returned many times afterward.  He produced a wide range of interpretations of one of America’s most beautiful places, from large, ambitious oils (two of which were purchased by the U.S. government) to small drawings and intricate watercolors.  Moran was so affected by Yellowstone that soon after his first visit, he began inserting a Y in his signature to indicate how much the area meant to him.  I have had the great privilege and pleasure of spending days looking over the Moran collections at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and I can readily attest the power those works have to move one emotionally. You can actually feel his connection to and appreciation of the land.

Summer Morning, A Cloudy Morning, Southwest Texas by Robert Julian Onderdonk, oil on camas

A similar feeling is conveyed by Julian Onderdonck in his many interpretations of the Texas Hill Country around his San Antonio home.  Onderdonck trained with William Merritt Chase in New York, but he found his true artistic calling when he returned to Texas and began painting the craggy limestone cliffs, oak trees, and of course, the fields of bluebonnets of central Texas.  He was so adept at capturing the essence of a glorious carpet of wildflowers in the countryside, that he literally spawned a whole genre of Texas landscape painting.  Probably to his chagrin, he was primarily known for his bluebonnet scenes, but he painted the Hill Country throughout the year and was equally talented at depicting the Texas sky as he was at painting the land.  He obviously felt a great connection to the land he painted and he continually explored and refined those feelings to produce a body of work that gives us an equally deep appreciation for the subject.

Ancient Valley by Victor Higgins, oil on board

Like all of the members of the Taos Society of Artists, Victor Higgins was attracted to northern New Mexico because of the unique quality of the light there, the three distinct cultures that offered a wealth of artistic inspiration, and the land itself.  By the end of his life, Higgins had distilled his feelings about his adopted home down to the essence of the landscape.  His technique transitioned from realism and representationalism to abstraction, but his abiding interest was the land and sky of New Mexico.  Frequently at the end of his career, he drove his car out into the high desert around Taos, sat on a makeshift stool in the trunk of his car, which afforded him a little shelter from the bright sun and painted the land that had affected him so deeply for so many years.  He called those paintings, his “little gems,” an apt description. Each one is a lovingly rendered tribute to a special place.

Sparking the Desert's Inner Fire by Lindy Severns, pastel, 36"x24"

Such deep emotional attachments are often what drives an artist to return to a subject or location over the course of their entire careers.  They are connected to that land in a profound way and they are compelled, even driven, to paint it.  One can say that their goal is to capture the essence of a particular place, but their paintings also often offer an insight into their own essence.  Their paintings reflect both the land and themselves.  When the right combination of talent, emotion, and connection to place is present, the results can be spectacular and magical.

Several years ago when my friend, Larry Francell, then the Director of the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross University in Alpine, Texas and now retired,  asked me to be the judge for the art submitted to the museum’s annual “Trappings of Texas” exhibition and sale, I did not expect to come across such a combination. While sometimes judging any art competition is something of a thankless task (after all much of it is subjective and distinctions between first place and the rest of the show can be pretty subtle), this year, I was highly rewarded with the discovery of a talented artist’s work.  I was immediately struck by the pastels of Lindy Severns and have been captivated by her work ever since. 

Lindy has the ability to depict the rugged beauty of Far West Texas like few other artists.  She is obviously at home in the mountains and high desert of the Davis Mountains and equally familiar with the grand sweep of the Big Bend.  Where others may think of this environment as harsh, Lindy finds it inspirational.  She and her husband Jim, both former pilots, have spent many hours trekking across this terrain; each visit reveals a new nuance of color, texture, and form.

The Very Edge of Texas by Lindy Severns, pastel, 24"x30"

Her paintings present the splendor of grand vistas, as well as the subtlety of close up observations.  Each season carries with it a new  panorama to paint, each time of day calls for its own distinct interpretation.  Change is ever present, light and colors shift and blend, clouds sweep across blue skies, and warm sunlit afternoons fade to cool, clear evenings.

Waking Desert by Lindy Severns, pastel, 20"30"

First Rain by Lindy Severns, pastel 36"x24"

LIndy embraces all of these permutations of the land and sky.  Working in a difficult medium, pastel, she displays an uncanny talent in vivid, realistic depictions of the natural environment of Far West Texas.  But there is something else evident in her paintings, something more difficult to explain and categorize.  Lindy imbues her paintings of this corner of Texas with her deep feelings for the place.  Many artists have staked claims on places that speak to them in a language that they feel in both their hearts and their heads. Like those artists,  Lindy has found her special place.  With her art, she celebrates its unique qualities and she lets us share the joy of roaming across a land that provides her with an infinite supply of ideas for future paintings. 

A Welcome Drenching by Lindy Severns, pastel, 16"x12"

I am glad that Moran discovered Yellowstone and that Onderdonk and Higgins developed such abiding affinities for their favored landscapes.  I can’t say whether my feelings about my home territory would be different if it had been interpreted by an artist with Lindy Severns’s skill and talent, but I suspect that had that come to pass, I would have an entirely different perspective today.

Old Texas Giant by Lindy Severns

Lindy Severns' work can be seen and purchased at the following:
Michael Duty Fine Art, LLC.
Old Spanish Trail Studio
Midland Gallery
The Open Range Fine Art
Paloma Gallery

Beyond Bluebonnets: Painting the Texas Hill Country

The post below is adapted from "Texas; The Land and  The Legacy, The Art of Bob Pummill by Michael Duty," which will be published later this spring.

A Spring Day in the Hill Country 
All paintings pictured are by Bob Pummill and all photos are courtesy of the artist.

A Spring Day in the Hill Country, focuses on that brief period each year when central Texas is awash in color.  The painting features various shades of green, browns, reds, yellows, and of course the blue of the queen of Texas wildflowers, the bluebonnet, a blossom that long ago claimed the title of the official state flower.  The painting, however, is not solely about this ubiquitous Spring bloom, although bluebonnets certainly are a primary facet of its composition.  The painting neatly sums up the beauty of the Hill Country at the height of Spring.  The artist, Bob Pummill, guides the viewer through a field of bluebonnets down a slight ravine and through a gap in a grove of Live Oak Trees and beyond to distant green hills under a blue sky dotted with white clouds.  The painting captures perhaps the most beautiful time of year in Texas and the scenic panorama that has long attracted artists to this region.  Pummill uses the composition of the painting to place the viewer at a vantage point that allows one to take in, at a glance, the whole landscape.  

Prickly Pear Autumn

In recent years, Bob Pummill has devoted much of his studio time to scenes of this type.  Like his historic subjects that chronicle the history of the American West, Bob approaches the central Texas landscape (literally located just steps from his home) with imagination and varying perspectives.  The land itself affords ample inspiration for artistic exploration.  As Pummill has pointed out, Texas may not have the towering peaks of the Rockies or the Tetons, the magnificent vista of the Grand Canyon, or the fantastic shapes and colors of Yellowstone and Yosemite, but it does have the Hill Country.  And while this area located to the north and west of Austin and San Antonio, may not be able to rival those locations for sheer dramatic panoramas, it does have a compelling and beautiful terrain full of hills, limestone and granite outcroppings, clear running streams, and of course, in early and mid Spring, fields of wildflowers that cover the ground like a carpet.

Sunlight and Shadow

The Hill Country is a sort of geographic and geological transition point in the Texas landscape.  It connects the low lands of the Gulf Coast and the black land prairies of East Texas to the high plains of West Texas and the cap rock of the Panhandle.  Some historians and geologists have noted that the Hill Country serves as a dividing line, both geographically and culturally between the east and the west.  To the east of the Hill Country, Texas history centers on southern traditions—the development of large cotton fields and lumber operations.  To the west, Texas history focuses on ranching and cattle drives, frontier forts and Indian raids.  Much of that divide is still evident  today.

April in the Lone Star State

Cultural and historic distinctions between the east and the west aside, the Texas Hill Country is a unique natural resource that has long attracted artists.  By turning his attention to this subject matter, Pummill joins a tradition established by some of the state’s finest, early artists. Early Texas was not exactly a haven for painters; frontier conditions, political turmoil, and the lack of an actual art market did not create a particularly attractive environment for artists.  Prior to joining the Union, most people in Texas were more preoccupied simply with getting by rather than collecting art.  


However, artists did gradually make their way to the new state of Texas in the 1850’s.  Most settled in San Antonio, which was rapidly becoming the state’s commercial and cultural center.  The artists who established studios in and around San Antonio, such as Theodore Gentilz and Herman Lungkwitz, frequently made excursions to paint the countryside.  Lungkwitz, in fact, established a home and studio in the Hill Country village of Fredericksburg, only a short distance from Bob Pummill’s present Kerrville studio.

Like Pummill, those early artists were captivated with the natural beauty of the area which offered an almost endless variety of scenery to capture.  By the early twentieth century, through the talents and efforts of such artists as Julian Onderdonk, Dawson Dawson-Watson, Robert Wood, and Porfirio Salinas, a tradition of painting the central Texas landscape was firmly established.  Each of those artists has added his own unique twist to picturing the Texas Hill Country. 

Morning Blues

First Bloom

In recent years, both the market for early Texas art and the critical establishment have increasingly given greater credit to these early Texas artists. Onderdonk, in particular,has enjoyed very robust sales on the auction market.  His work was also the subject of a major museum retrospective in recent years.  

Late Afternoon

While Onderdonk perhaps set the gold standard for early landscape painting inTexas, other accomplished artists have added to that rich tradition.  San Antonio oil wildcatter, Edgar B. Davis, established a lucrative cash prize for an annual competition for wildflower paintings in the late 1920’s.  The prize attracted a talented group of artists who came to the Hill Country to try their hand at capturing the beauty of the landscape there.  Many of those artists established studios in San Antonio, which further added to that city's reputation as an art center.  In effect, the Texas Hill Country, played a direct role in establishing an artistic heritage in the state.

Near Llano

Bob Pummill's recent landscape paintings are a fitting complement to the work of those early artists.  His work furthers the tradition they established, but also adds a new dimension to the larger body of work devoted to the Texas landscape.

Wildflowers and Granite

His subject matter is similar to that of the earlier artists, but he brings his own unique perspective and style to those scenes.  For example, "Summer Lace," presents a subject that might have easily been selected by Wood, Salinas, or Dawson-Watson, or even Onderdonk, but it is done in a manner radically different from any of those artists. Here the focus is on the close up elements of the land--tall grasses, yucca, and cactus.

The distant horizon is really not seen at all, obscured by the dense foliage and live oak trees. The interplay between the cool shadows, which dominate most of the canvas, and the fading light of day, shown here as a shaft of sunlight that divides the canvas, is done so in a subtle, and nuanced manner.  The light shines through the branches of a large Live Oak that anchors the right side of the painting and adds just enough highlight to catch and hold the viewer's attention.  The overall effect is a sense of quiet, tranquility, a timeless moment that allows one to reflect on the beauty of nature even in the simplest and most commonplace scenes.  

Summer Lace

Such is the talent of Pummill and those artists who came before him--their task is to encourage all of us to slow down and take a closer look at the natural world around us. In doing so, we just might develop a greater sensitivity and appreciation for that world.

“Texas, the Land and the Legacy: The Art of Bob Pummill "is the second collaboration between the artist and writer.  Their first book together, "Under Western Skies:  The Art of Bob Pummill" was published in 2002.