Texas - Paintings

Early American Impressionist painting by New York born artist André Gisson. The work features a group of three women standing in an open field. The loose brushwork gives the impressi...

Late 19th century painting done after an 1890 Newsboy Plug Tobacco advertising card titled "The Last Look." At the time, a customer could trade in 10 paper tags that came with the to...

Modern pink, yellow, and blue abstract expressionist painting by English artist Tony Magar. The work features bold, emotive strokes that continue around the edges with a patch of whi...

William Ballantine Dorsey (1942-2019) California Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 23.5 x 27.5 Medium: Oil on Canvas "California Landscape"

Artwork size (without frame): 30"h x 22"w

Dorothy Johnson Image Size: 12 x 16 Frame Size: 14.5 x 18.5 Medium: Oil "Prickly Pear"

Lively abstract painting with primary tones of yellows, reds and greens with accents of blue and black on white background, 1952. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper dis...

Contemporary colorful abstract painting by Houston based artist Shelbi Nicole. The work features black, white, and pink shapes floating against a blue background. Signed and dated in...

French gouache painting, circa 1930. This abstract piece stands out for its bright hues and sharp, interconnected geometric shapes. Original one-of-a-...

Modern Cubist inspired colorful abstract still life painting by the French artist Marcel Mouly. The work features a collection of bottles and vases arranged on a red table that has b...

A colorful burst of spring set in the hills of an Italian town. Oil on canvas board measures 12 x 16; frame dimensions are 16 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 1 1/2. Housed in a decorative silver-colo...

Figurative portrait painting by Houston-based artist Buford Evans. The work features a black figure dressed in red holding a spear. Signed and dated by the artist in the front lower ...

Oil painting measures 12 x 9; frame dimensions measure 19 3/8 x 16 3/8 x 3. Housed in an elegant gold-tone frame with decorative edges. Illegible signature, lower right.

Colorful abstract cowboy portrait painting by contemporary artist Ian Francis. The work features a western inspired figure with a shadowed face dressed in bright blue with a red cowb...

Leon Collins Birthdate Unknown Galveston / Navasota Texas Artist Image Size: 36 x 24 Unframed. Medium: Acrylic on Canvas "Vision in my Mind Big Mama" Leon Collins Birthdate Unknown "...

Oil on canvas laid on board measures 14 3/4 x 9 7/8; frame dimensions measure 22 3/8 x 17 x 3 1/4. Artist's signature, lower left. A fragment of a gallery brochure entitled, Peintures de Botkin is included with the painting. A partial title for the painting is listed under Number 3 in the exhibition. On the verso of the brochure is a label from Frank Rehn...

Paulette Lee works from her studio on Route 66 in South Pasadena, California. Her loose, expressive painting style is influenced by the Russian Masters of the 19th and 20th Century. ...

Lester Hughes (1938-2021) El Paso Artist Image Size: 18 x 36 Frame Size: 20 x 38 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Stagecoach To Nowhere" Biography Lester Hughes (1938-2021) From El Paso, Texas...

Eleanor Jones Harvey, Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, writes about Bob Stuth-Wade: “Over the course of his career, Bob Stuth-Wade has examined his responses to life through landscape, still life, portraiture, and abstraction. Restlessly creative, he has explored these varied genres with equal concentration…..” Bob Stuth-Wade’s method of painting is uniquely his own, having taught himself technique; his only formal training was as a teenager with Dallas artist Perry Nichols...

After a tour of duty in the US Navy, Miles Cleveland Goodwin earned a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, in 2007, and eventually returned to coastal Missi...

Contemporary pop culture inspired painting by German artist Jörg Döring. The work features a dynamic depiction of James Dean driving his Porsche 550 Spyder with the iconic number "13...

Early realist still life painting of a stack of books set against a black background. Signed Kaplan on the reverse. Currently hung in a wood frame with velvet matting. Would recommen...

Contemporary large scale abstract floral painting by Texas based artist Wood Anthony Francher. Inspired by Mexican floral embroidery patterns and textiles, the work is a burst of bol...

William Ballantine Dorsey (1942-2019) California Artist Size: 11 x 14 Frame: 17.5 x 20.5 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Early Santa Barbara" Biography William Ballantine Dorsey (1942-2019) O...

Vera Barnett has taken on a range of themes in her works, producing series of paintings inspired by phobias, famous artworks (as in her series "Classical Plastique,") or most recentl...

Contemporary colorful pastoral landscape by Texas based artist Jacob Spacek. The work features a bright blue shack in the middle of an open field set against a vibrant red sky. Signe...

Donald Stacy "Purple Head" c.1950s Gouache and oil pastel on paper 13.75" x 17" unframed Unsigned Came from artist's estate Donald Stacy (1925-2008) New Jersey Studied: Newark School of Fine Art The Art Students League Pratt Graphic Arts Center University of Paris 1953-54 University of Aix-en-Provence 1954-55 Faculty: Art Department of the New School Museum of Modern Art School of Visual Arts Stacy Studio Workshop Exhibitions: Grand Central Moderns George Wittenborn The New School Print Exhibitions, Chicago University of Oklahoma Honolulu Museum Monclair Museum Wisconsin State College Louisiana Art Commission Philadelphia Print...

Donald Vogel was inspired by gardens throughout his painting career. Before moving to Dallas, as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1930's, Vogel's studio was a block away from Chicago's Lincoln Park...

G. Harvey (Gerald Harvey Jones) (1933-2017) San Antonio, Austin, and Fredericksburg Artist Image Size: 30 x 24 Frame Size: 44 x 38 Medium: Oil on canvas “ Gift Of Rain “ G. Harvey (G...

FRAMED SIZE IS 22 X 30 Painting The Italian Beaches are a common theme in Nelson White paintings as seen in this 16 x 20 oil painting by Nelson White. The title for this Italian Beach is Bagno Salute (2023) . His paintings show his love for the outdoors and nature. "Bagno Salute" refers to a specific beach and beach club, Bagno La Salute, located in Viareggio, Italy. It is known for being a popular tourist destination and is also the subject of artwork by Nelson H. White. The beach is characterized by its vibrant atmosphere, colorful umbrellas, and picturesque setting. The artist has a unique style that he developed in studying under the masters in Italy. The use of the palette knife is seen in many of his Italian landscape paintings. White's paintings are individualistic. White 's paintings have been shown in numerous galleries across the globe since the 1950s, from the United States ,Italy and Russia. White's first museum retrospective was in the New Britain Museum of American Art in July 2012. His work can be found in many private and public collections, as well as several museums. Hand made frame in Italy The artist has a unique style that he developed in studying under the masters in Italy. The use of the palette knife is seen in many of his Italian landscape paintings. White's paintings are individualistic. White 's paintings have been shown in numerous galleries across the globe since the 1950s, from the United States ,Italy and Russia. White's first museum retrospective was in the New Britain Museum of American Art in July 2012. Nelson H. White was born in New London, Connecticut in 1932. White has been surrounded by art and artists from the time he was born. He received his earliest art instruction from his grandfather, Henry Cooke White (1861-1952) and his father Nelson Cooke White (1900-1989), both important American artists. The family lived in Waterford, Connecticut and the elder White had been an early member of the art colony in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Known for his paintings of the Connecticut landscape and shoreline, Henry Cooke White became a teacher to his son, Nelson Cooke White. Living with his parents at the Florence Griswold house in Old Lyme, he met some of the most important and influential artists of the day, Childe Hassam, Will Howe Foote...

The overall dimensions including the frame are 70 x 42 inches. Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Voge...

LOOK FOR FREE SHIPPING AT CHECKOUT Rock Me is a 14 x 20 figurative oil painting by E. Melinda Morrison. It was painted in 2019. Rock Me shows the movement of the water rocking the ...

Chuck Mauldin Born 1949 Fredericksburg Artist Image Size: 18 x 14 Frame Size: 22 x 18 Medium: Oil "Spring In Her Step" Cattle Landscape Texas A native of Texas, Chuck Mauldin has been painting in oil since the age of twelve. His interest in watercolor and pencil drawing grew during his years spent in Louisiana. With his move back to Texas, he has renewed his focus on oil painting, using this medium in a realistic yet painterly style. Striving to quickly capture color and mood with a direct "alla prima" technique is one of his main objectives in painting outdoors on-location. Cows, cowboys and Native Americans often enrich the landscape in his studio work, while anything can inspire his plein air paintings. Workshops with Charles Sovek, Kevin Macpherson, and many others have played a significant role in his development as an artist. He is a member of Oil Painters of America and has achieved Signature membership status in the Louisiana Watercolor Society and the Plein Air Artists of Colorado. Chuck has won numerous awards and has had work accepted into prestigious national juried competitions, such as the Oil Painters of America National Show (2020, 2021), Western Regional Show (2016, 2021, 2022) and Salon Show (2016, 2020). After 28 years in Louisiana, Chuck and his wife, Barbara, moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, in 2005, in order to pursue their passion for art on a full-time basis. In 2008, Chuck started teaching a beginner’s oil painting class and later intermediate classes in composition, landscape painting, and limited palettes. He is represented by Charles Morin Fine Art in Fredericksburg, Texas. Degrees in chemistry from Southern Methodist University (B.S.) and the University of Texas (PhD) led to Chuck's career in research at ExxonMobil Process Research Labs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He presently holds 57 U.S. patents in the field of catalysis. He and Barbara have two sons and a daughter, and 8 perfect grandchildren. An Eagle Scout...

Martin Grelle (Born 1954) Clifton Texas Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 33 x 45 Medium: Oil on Canvas 1978 "Night Stop" Nocturnal Western painting Signed lower left Biography Martin Grelle (Born 1954) Martin Grelle, b. 1954, Clifton, Texas, (United States) Born and raised in Clifton, Texas, Martin Grelle still lives on a small ranch a few miles from town. His studio sits in the picturesque Meridian Creek Valley, surrounded by the oak & cedar-covered hills of Bosque County, just a short distance from his home, but also within a few miles of the family and friends who are so important in his life. He has two sons, Josh & Jordan, who have left home to pursue their own dreams, but who stay in touch frequently. Martin's parents, Ervin & Ella, have both passed from this life, but he still has his brothers, Carl & Marvin, living nearby, as well as his sister, Mary, who lives in Ft. Worth. Martin began drawing and painting when he was very young, and was fortunate to have James Boren and Melvin Warren, two professional artists and members of the Cowboy Artists of America, move to the area when he was still in high school, and it has had a lasting impact on his direction and career. Mentored by Boren, he had his first one-man show at a local gallery within a year of graduating from high school in 1973. In the nearly 40 years since that time, he has produced some 30 one-man exhibitions, including annual shows in Scottsdale, Arizona since 1989, and has won awards of both regional and national importance at shows around the country. He was invited into membership with the Cowboy Artists of America in 1995, fulfilling a dream begun in the early 70's when he first met Boren and Warren. That same year he was invited to participate in the first Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Since that time, he has won the Prix de West Purchase Award, twice (one of only seven artists to do so), the Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey Buyers' Choice Award, twice, the CA People's Choice Award in 2002, the CA Ray Swanson Award in 2008, the CA Buyers' Choice Award in 2011 and 2012, and the Silver Award for Water Solubles in 2012. He was awarded the Legacy Award by The Briscoe Museum in 2012, for his impact on western art. Other major invitational exhibitions and sales Martin has participated in include The Masters at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, and the inaugural Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, the Coeur d'Alene Auction, and the Jackson Hole Art Auction. Martin has also been featured in a number of publications throughout his career, including multiple appearances in the following magazines: Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Southwest Art, Western Art and Architecture, Persimmon Hill, American Cowboy, Western Horseman, Informant, Wild West, and True West's magazine's 2011 Best of the West Source Book. He was honored with a retrospective showing of his work, along with fellow CA artist, Herb Mignery, for the Gilcrease Museum's Rendezvous Show 2013. Martin has a real sense of responsibility to his collectors, which fills his heart every morning when he walks into the studio, believing that what he does is a gift entrusted to him from God, and must not be left unused or taken for granted, but developed and improved upon. His parents and Jim and Mary Ellen Boren, all set that example for him - an example of not only striving to be the best artist he can be, but the best man he can be as well. Beyond his studio, Martin strives to pass on what others have passed to him. He has given multiple demonstrations around the country, teaches an annual weekend workshop along with his good friend, and fellow CA, Bruce Greene - which they have done for 22 years straight - and mentors other aspiring artists by critiquing their work. He has donated work to a large number of organizations to aid in their progress, including The Bosque Arts Center in Clifton, Texas. He has twice served on the board of directors for the CA organization and is currently serving as President. He is also involved with The Joe Beeler Foundation, founded by the Cowboy Artists of America to coincide with their mentoring program, which provides scholarship opportunities for artists seeking to improve their skills, and has served as President of the Foundation for the past year as well. Education Self-taught; mentored by James Boren Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, TX, Workshop, Harvey Johnson/Melvin Warren, 1983 Bosque Conservatory, Clifton, TX, Workshop, Bettina Steinke...

Modern red, blue, green, and yellow mixed media abstract painting by the artist Bert Millar. The work features vertical stripes of various colors set against a light grey wash of col...

W. A. Slaughter (1923 - 2003) Dallas / San Antonio Artist Size: 30 x 40 Frame: 40 x 50 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1974 "Banks of Blue" Texas Bluebonnets Biography W. A. Slaughter (1...

Colorful abstract cowboy portrait painting by contemporary artist Ian Francis. The work features a western inspired figure with a shadowed face dressed in a yellow ochre coat with a ...

Blue, pink, and white abstract contemporary circular painting by Houston, TX artist David Hardaker. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on the reverse. Artist Statement: The wo...

Contemporary colorful painting by Houston-based artist Peter Healy. The work features expressive pink, blue, yellow, and red strokes against a light gray background. Signed, titled, ...

Leon Collins (Born 1930) Galveston / Navasota Texas Artist Image Size: 64 x 44 Frame Size: 70.25 x 50.25 Medium: Oil on Wood Panel "Wild Dream" *Painting has crackular throughout Leo...

Colorful abstract cowboy portrait painting by contemporary artist Ian Francis. The work features a western inspired figure with a shadowed face dressed in blue and red stripes with a...

Realistic early German portrait painting of Johann Ludwig-Mosley wearing his various military awards. The back features further documentation about the man's life and service. Curren...

David Sanders (1933-2013) Austin Artist Image Size: 30 x 40 Frame Size: 40 x 50 Medium: "Pastel" "Along the Nueces" David Sanders (1933-2013) Known for his oil pastel landscapes, Dav...

Contemporary naturalistic painting by Texas-based artist Jennifer Lively. The work features a clear, blue pool next to a palm tree. A small white boat can be seen sailing in the back...

Pink and orange abstract contemporary circular painting by Houston, TX artist David Hardaker. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on the reverse. Artist Statement: The work is ...

G. Harvey (Gerald Harvey Jones) (1933-2017) San Antonio, Austin, and Fredericksburg Artist Image Size: 24 x 30 Frame Size: 33 x 39 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1972 "Spring Shadows" B...

W. A. Slaughter (1923 - 2003) Dallas / San Antonio Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 33 x 45 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Bend in the Creek" Texas Hill Country Biography W. A. Slaught...

Contemporary realistic Texas landscape nature painting by Houston based artist Jerry Greenberg. The work features a path winding through a stand of lush trees. Signed in the front lo...

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 25 x 30 Frame Size: 34 x 39 Medium: Oil on Canvas Circa 1950 "Lazy Day Blues" Texas Bluebonnet Biography Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) Porfirio Salinas was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes of Central Texas with an emphasis on the vast bluebonnet fields that grow there in the springtime. Born in 1910 in Bastrop, Texas, he attended public schools in San Antonio. He also observed works in progress by the director of the San Antonio Art School, Jose Arpa, as well as landscape painter, Robert Wood. Wood is said to have paid Salinas five dollars a picture to paint bluebonnets because "he hated to paint bluebonnets". Salinas served in the military from 1943 to 1945. Although he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, he was allowed to live at home. At the fort, Colonel Telesphor Gottchalk assigned him to paint murals for the officer's lounge and various other projects, and Salinas continued to be able to paint during his entire conscripted period. Even before he achieved notoriety among galleries, dealers, and museums, Salinas was widely followed and appreciated by many Texans, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who may be considered responsible for launching Salinas popularity beyond the boundaries of Texas. In 1973, Texas capital, Austin, honored Salinas for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas closer together with his paintings". Salinas died in April 1973 in San Antonio, Texas. From the years of the Great Depression through President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s, Texan Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) remained one of the Lone Star State's most popular artists. Today, his works remain popular with Texas collectors and those who love landscapes of the beautiful "Hill Country" that lies in the center of the state. One of the first Mexican American painters to become widely recognized for his art, Salinas was a favorite of President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as well as of Sam Rayburn, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas Governor John Connelly. In fact, President Johnson was so enamored with his Salinas paintings that the artist will forever be associated with America's first Texas-born President. Works by Porfirio Salinas is in a number of museum collections, grace the halls of the Texas State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion in Austin, and are included in virtually every major private collection of Early Texas Art. Porfirio Salinas was born on November 6, 1910, near the small town of Bastrop, Texas, about thirty miles from Austin. His father, Porfirio G. Salinas (1881-1967), and his mother, Clara G. Chavez, struggled to make a hardscrabble living as tenant farmers, but eventually were forced to give up farming. The family moved to San Antonio, where Salinas' father was able to get a job working as a laborer for the railroad, but the scenic area around Bastrop, with its pine trees and the wide expanse of the Rio Grande River, would forever remain a touchstone for the artist. For the rest of his life, Salinas and his brothers went back frequently to visit their grandmother in her little farmhouse. When in Bastrop, Porfirio painted on the banks of the Rio Grande or in the groves of pine trees. The Salinas family was close-knit, and Porfirio was the middle child of five children, so he had an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother and sister. His mother was a native of Mexico, so throughout his childhood the family made the long drive to Mexico to visit Clara Salinas' family. As a child growing up in the bi-lingual section of San Antonio, Salinas drew and painted incessantly and by the time he was ten, he was already producing work that was mature enough to sell to his schoolteachers. Many years later in an article in the New York Times he was described as a "boy whose textbooks were seldom opened and whose sketchbook was never closed." Instead of studying, the young artist spent his spare time watching artists paint in and around San Antonio. As an aspiring painter, Salinas was fortunate to grow up in the historic city, which had the most active art scene in Texas. It was his exposure to older, professional painters that encouraged the precocious young painter to leave school early in order to help his family and pursue a career as a professional artist, despite his father's inability to see art as a career with any future for his son. When Salinas was about fifteen he came to know the artist Robert W. Wood (1889-1979). He met Wood while he was employed in an art supply store and he soon began to work as an assistant to the English-born painter, who had moved from Portland to San Antonio in 1924. Although the diminutive Englishman was already an established professional artist, he did not have a great deal of formal art training and so he was then studying with the academically trained Spanish painter Jose Arpa (1858-1952) in order to augment his knowledge and give his work a more polished look. Salinas was an eager young man, and while working in Wood's downtown San Antonio studio he learned to stretch canvases, frame paintings and to sketch in larger compositions from small plein-air studies for the English artist. He began to accompany Wood and Arpa to the hills outside San Antonio, where they painted small Plein-air studies of fields of blue lupin - the state flower, the famous "Bluebonnets" of Texas - in the springtime and scenes of the gnarled Red Oaks as they changed color in the fall. He was soon assisting Wood in the tedious work of painting the tiny blue flowers that collectors wanted to see in the landscapes they purchased of central Texas. According to a 1972 newspaper story, "Legend has it that one day in the 1920s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting." Whether this story is accurate or apocryphal isn't clear, but the ambitious and independent young Salinas wasn't destined to be anyone's assistant for very long. The formative event of Porfirio Salinas' teenage years was the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, a Roaring-Twenties dream of the eccentric oilman Edgar B. Davis (1873-1951). These competitive shows of paintings of wildflowers and Texas life were mounted in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929. Held at the newly opened Witte Museum each spring, the exhibition featured large cash prizes donated by the philanthropic Davis, which were an inducement for artists to travel from all over the United States to paint in the Hill Country of Texas. The "Davis Competitions," as they were known, helped to cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center, a legacy that remains with the "River City" today. The shows generated a great deal of excitement in the area, helping to make celebrities of the some of the artists who had already settled there and encouraging others to make San Antonio their home. Over the three years that the wildflower competitions were held, more than 300 paintings were exhibited, and many thousands of viewers saw the paintings at the Witte Museum and on tours throughout the state and in New York. Each year Davis would generously purchase the winning paintings and then donate them to the San Antonio Art League. Young Porfirio Salinas would have been able to not only watch his two mentors - Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa - paint the works that they entered in the Davis Competitions, he would have been able to see Arpa take several of the major prizes, receiving the judge's accolades for "Verbena," "Cactus Flower" and "Picking Cotton," works that are still on view at the San Antonio Art League Museum today. Unfortunately, Davis eventually put his donations to work in other charitable endeavors, bringing to an end the wildflower events, but only after they inspired Salinas and other young painters and had helped to make wildflower paintings the most sought-after subject for traditionalist Texas collectors. In 1930, when he was only twenty, Salinas hung out a shingle and began to paint professionally, augmenting the sales of his easel paintings with what little business he could garner by painting signs for local concerns. It was a struggle for the young artist to make a living, as the effects of the Great Depression were settling in. His early works are very similar to those of Robert Wood's, both in subject matter and treatment. Salinas did small paintings of Bluebonnets for the tourists who visited San Antonio to see the famous Alamo as well as paintings of the Texas missions...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Apres Le Bain is a stunning 22 x 26-inch pencil and Sanguine chalk painting depicting a nude woman after her bath. This large, exquisitely detailed work showc...

Geometric abstract painting by contemporary artist Stephanie Beukers. The work features layers of hard-edged shapes in red, white, tan, and black set against a light background. Curr...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 23 x 27 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Bluebonnet and Huisache" Texas Hill Country Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I wa...

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 30 x 40 Frame Size: 39 x 49 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1957 "Bluebonnet Creek" Texas Hill Country Biography Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) Porfirio Salinas was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes of Central Texas with an emphasis on the vast bluebonnet fields that grow there in the springtime. Born in 1910 in Bastrop, Texas, he attended public schools in San Antonio. He also observed works in progress by the director of the San Antonio Art School, Jose Arpa, as well as landscape painter, Robert Wood. Wood is said to have paid Salinas five dollars a picture to paint bluebonnets because "he hated to paint bluebonnets". Salinas served in the military from 1943 to 1945. Although he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, he was allowed to live at home. At the fort, Colonel Telesphor Gottchalk assigned him to paint murals for the officer's lounge and various other projects, and Salinas continued to be able to paint during his entire conscripted period. Even before he achieved notoriety among galleries, dealers, and museums, Salinas was widely followed and appreciated by many Texans, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who may be considered responsible for launching Salinas popularity beyond the boundaries of Texas. In 1973, Texas capital, Austin, honored Salinas for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas closer together with his paintings". Salinas died in April 1973 in San Antonio, Texas. From the years of the Great Depression through President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s, Texan Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) remained one of the Lone Star State's most popular artists. Today, his works remain popular with Texas collectors and those who love landscapes of the beautiful "Hill Country" that lies in the center of the state. One of the first Mexican American painters to become widely recognized for his art, Salinas was a favorite of President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as well as of Sam Rayburn, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas Governor John Connelly. In fact, President Johnson was so enamored with his Salinas paintings that the artist will forever be associated with America's first Texas-born President. Works by Porfirio Salinas are in a number of museum collections, grace the halls of the Texas State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion in Austin, and are included in virtually every major private collection of Early Texas Art. Porfirio Salinas was born on November 6, 1910, near the small town of Bastrop, Texas, about thirty miles from Austin. His father, Porfirio G. Salinas (1881-1967), and his mother, Clara G. Chavez, struggled to make a hardscrabble living as tenant farmers, but eventually were forced to give up farming. The family moved to San Antonio, where Salinas' father was able to get a job working as a laborer for the railroad, but the scenic area around Bastrop, with its pine trees and the wide expanse of the Rio Grande River, would forever remain a touchstone for the artist. For the rest of his life, Salinas and his brothers went back frequently to visit their grandmother in her little farmhouse. When in Bastrop, Porfirio painted on the banks of the Rio Grande or in the groves of pine trees. The Salinas family was close-knit and Porfirio was the middle child of five children, so he had an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother and sister. His mother was a native of Mexico, so throughout his childhood the family made the long drive to Mexico to visit Clara Salinas' family. As a child growing up in the bi-lingual section of San Antonio, Salinas drew and painted incessantly and by the time he was ten, he was already producing work that was mature enough to sell to his schoolteachers. Many years later in an article in the New York Times he was described as a "boy whose textbooks were seldom opened and whose sketchbook was never closed." Instead of studying, the young artist spent his spare time watching artists paint in and around San Antonio. As an aspiring painter, Salinas was fortunate to grow up in the historic city, which had the most active art scene in Texas. It was his exposure to older, professional painters that encouraged the precocious young painter to leave school early in order to help his family and pursue a career as a professional artist, despite his father's inability to see art as a career with any future for his son. When Salinas was about fifteen he came to know the artist Robert W. Wood (1889-1979). He met Wood while he was employed in an art supply store and he soon began to work as an assistant to the English-born painter, who had moved from Portland to San Antonio in 1924. Although the diminutive Englishman was already an established professional artist, he did not have a great deal of formal art training and so he was then studying with the academically trained Spanish painter Jose Arpa (1858-1952) in order to augment his knowledge and give his work a more polished look. Salinas was an eager young man, and while working in Wood's downtown San Antonio studio he learned to stretch canvases, frame paintings and to sketch in larger compositions from small plein-air studies for the English artist. He began to accompany Wood and Arpa to the hills outside San Antonio, where they painted small Plein-air studies of fields of blue lupin - the state flower, the famous "Bluebonnets" of Texas - in the springtime and scenes of the gnarled Red Oaks as they changed color in the fall. He was soon assisting Wood in the tedious work of painting the tiny blue flowers that collectors wanted to see in the landscapes they purchased of central Texas. According to a 1972 newspaper story, "Legend has it that one day in the 1920s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting." Whether this story is accurate or apocryphal isn't clear, but the ambitious and independent young Salinas wasn't destined to be anyone's assistant for very long. The formative event of Porfirio Salinas' teenage years was the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, a Roaring-Twenties dream of the eccentric oilman Edgar B. Davis (1873-1951). These competitive shows of paintings of wildflowers and Texas life were mounted in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929. Held at the newly opened Witte Museum each spring, the exhibition featured large cash prizes donated by the philanthropic Davis, which were an inducement for artists to travel from all over the United States to paint in the Hill Country of Texas. The "Davis Competitions," as they were known, helped to cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center, a legacy that remains with the "River City" today. The shows generated a great deal of excitement in the area, helping to make celebrities of the some of the artists who had already settled there and encouraging others to make San Antonio their home. Over the three years that the wildflower competitions were held, more than 300 paintings were exhibited, and many thousands of viewers saw the paintings at the Witte Museum and on tours throughout the state and in New York. Each year Davis would generously purchase the winning paintings and then donate them to the San Antonio Art League. Young Porfirio Salinas would have been able to not only watch his two mentors - Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa - paint the works that they entered in the Davis Competitions, he would have been able to see Arpa take several of the major prizes, receiving the judge's accolades for "Verbena," "Cactus Flower" and "Picking Cotton," works that are still on view at the San Antonio Art League Museum today. Unfortunately, Davis eventually put his donations to work in other charitable endeavors, bringing to an end the wildflower events, but only after they inspired Salinas and other young painters and had helped to make wildflower paintings the most sought-after subject for traditionalist Texas collectors. In 1930, when he was only twenty, Salinas hung out a shingle and began to paint professionally, augmenting the sales of his easel paintings with what little business he could garner by painting signs for local concerns. It was a struggle for the young artist to make a living, as the effects of the Great Depression were settling in. His early works are very similar to those of Robert Wood's, both in subject matter and treatment. Salinas did small paintings of Bluebonnets for the tourists who visited San Antonio to see the famous Alamo as well as paintings of the Texas missions...

Contemporary colorful abstract painting by Houston based artist Shelbi Nicole. The work features a black and white shape floating against a light blue background. Signed and dated in...

Fluid circular abstract in gold and blue with pop of yellow, circa 2000. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a stan...

From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedman Opper Tighties c. 1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18" blue lacquered frame 18.5"x1.75"x21.5" Unsigned From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann...

Neutral toned gestural abstract painting by contemporary artist Ian Francis. The work features a variety of gestural marks in white and black, accented by small beige shapes. Signed,...

Girl with Aperitivo No. 2 Oil on canvas panel 16” x 12” This Florentine painting by James Crandall was painted in the summer of 2024 by the Duomo in Florence. It is oil on a cotto...

James Boren (1921 - 1990) Waxahatchie, Texas / Oklahoma Artist / Member Cowboy Artists of America Image Size: 28 x 42 Frame Size: 40 x 53 Medium: Oil "Ca...

Palmer Chrisman (1913 - 1984) Austin Artist Image Size: 20 x 24 Frame Size: 25 x 29 Medium: Oil "Path in the Hills" Texas Hill Country Palmer Chrisman (1913 - 1984) Palmer Chrisman ...