Charles Morin Fine Art

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 25 x 31 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1967 "Rough Coast" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious abo...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 30.5 x 42.5 Medium: Oil "Hill Country Creek" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedro L...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 8 x 10 Frame Size: 15.75 x 17.75 Medium: Oil "Bluebonnet Hills" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedro La...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 12 x 16 Frame Size: 17.25 x 21.25 Medium: Oil "Bluebonnet Hill Top" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedr...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 25.5 x 31.5 Medium: Oil "Bluebonnet Path" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedro Lazc...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 20 x 24 Frame Size: 27.25 x 31.25 Medium: Oil "Hill Country Home" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedro ...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 24.75 x 28.75 Medium: Oil "Long View" Texas Hill Country Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious a...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 25.5 x 31.5 Medium: Oil "Watering Hole" Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about Pedro Lazcan...

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...

Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951) Massachusetts Image Size: 15.5 x 15.5 Frame Size: 23.25 x 27.25 Medium: Charcoal on Paper Dated 1930 "Two Mallards Biography Frank Weston Benson (1862...

Fred Darge (1900-1978) Dallas Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 27.5 x 33.5 Medium: Oil on Board "Approaching Storm" Biography Fred Darge (1900-1978) Friedrich Ernst Darge Born: March ...

Manuel Garza (Born 1949) Texas Artist Image Size: 9 x 12 Frame Size: 15.25 x 18.25 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Bluebonnet Fence" Biography Manuel Garza (Born 1949) Growing up in Central T...

Carl Hoppe 1897-1981 San Antonio Artist Image Size: 22 x 36 Frame Size: 26.25 x 40.25 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Creek in Leon Valley" Biography Carl Hoppe 1897-1981 Carl Thomas Hoppe...

Eric Harrison (Born 1971) Texas Hill Country Artist Image Size: 48 x 72 Frame Size: 61 x 86 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas "Summer's Beckoning" Bio Eric H...

Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 20 x 24 Frame Size: 29 x 32 Medium: Oil on Canvas "West Texas" Ranching Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970) I was always curious about ...

Don Crowley (1926-2019) Arizona / California Western Artist Image Size: 11 x 13 Frame Size: 18 x 20 Medium: Gouache Study "After Glow" Indian Girl with her...

Don Crowley (1926-2019) Arizona / California Western Artist Image Size: 20 x 24 Frame Size: 33 x 37 Medium: Oil "The Seamstress" Indian Weaver Native Ameri...

John Austin Hanna Born 1942 Fredericksburg Artist Image Size: 24 x 48 Frame Size: 28 x 52 Medium: Oil on Canvas Mercedes Benz 300SL "Gullwing" Coupe Ralph Lauren's personal vehicle Biography John Austin Hanna Born 1942 John Austin Hanna - Fredericksburg, Texas John graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Advertising Art & Design. As a 20-year illustrator in New York and Dallas he has been published in several magazines such as Automotive Quarterly, Car and Driver, Saga, Town & Country, Flying, Popular Boating, and Popular Science. He has also done work for several large corporations such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, Borden’s, Pearl Beer...

John Austin Hanna Born 1942 Fredericksburg Artist Image Size: 40 x 30 Frame Size: 51 x 41 Medium: Oil on Canvas 1996 "Fresh Flowers" Biography John Austin Hanna Born 1942 John Austin Hanna - Fredericksburg, Texas John graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Advertising Art & Design. As a 20-year illustrator in New York and Dallas he has been published in several magazines such as Automotive Quarterly, Car and Driver...

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 ...

Lester Hughes (1938-2021) El Paso Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 30 x 42 Medium: Oil "Lost and Found" West Texas Cattle STRAYS Biography Lester Hughes (1938-2021) From El Pas...

Ward Lockwood (1894 - 1963) New Mexico, Texas, Kansas / Mexico Artist Image Size: 12 x 16 Frame Size: 17.75 x 21.75 Medium: Charcoal "Siesta By The Oven" Biography Ward Lockwood (1894 - 1963) Born in Atchison, Kansas, Ward Lockwood became a key painter in the Taos, New Mexico art colony, but diverse modernist art styles including Expressionism*, Cubism*, Surrealism* and Constructivism* reflected his wide ranging travels in Europe and the United States. From the 1920s to the 1960s, his work embraced a series of stylistic changes characteristic of people who influenced him, including John Marin and Andrew Dasburg. He studied at the University of Kansas, and from 1914 to 1917 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts* where he was introduced to Modernism*. In 1917, he began a two-year enlistment in the Army and served in France, and in 1921, a return visit to France led to his being influenced by Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh. During this time, he studied in Paris at the Academie Ranson*, but got bored with the academic climate of that school and spent time at the Louvre and galleries along the Rue de la Boetie. He painted from local models and traveled around France with fellow Kansan, Kenneth Adams. He was much impressed with the diversity of contemporary art movements including Futurism*, Cubism, and Dadaism*. His work from this period shows influences of Geometric Abstraction* and Impressionism. In 1922, he returned to Kansas, committed to the idea that an artist does best painting in his own culture. He worked as a commercial artist and also did portrait commissions. In 1926, he and his wife, artist Clyde Bonebrake, moved to Taos, New Mexico because of his friendship with Kenneth Adams, who was already established there. Lockwood became interested in the Taos Society of Artists...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist "Grace in the Storm" John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Texas State Artist 2010 by the 81st Texas Legislature....

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 27 tall x 12 x 8 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "If Wishes Were Horses" Western John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was ...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 19 x 13 x 9 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "Fiesta Song" Accordion Player John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was design...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 26 x 12 x 8 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "La Dolce Vita" The Sweet Life! John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was desig...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 26 tall x 12 x 8 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "Frida's Wedding" Frida Kahlo John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was de...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 19 x 15 x 19 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "The Guardian" Western John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Te...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 14 Tall x 7 x 7 Medium: Bronze Sculpture "Maiden's Honor" Zuni John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated ...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 36 tall x 13 x 14 Medium: Bronze "Willow" John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Texas State Artist 20...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 25 x 18 x 4 Medium: Bronze "Belle Starr" John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Texas State Artist 201...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 22 x 37 across x 10 Medium: Bronze "Horse Tamer" John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Texas State Ar...

John Bennett (Born 1952) Fredericksburg, Texas Artist Image Size: 23 x 21 x 13 Medium: Bronze "Two Bad Apples" John Bennett (Born 1952) John Bennett was designated Texas State Artist...

Joe G. Russel (1926-2008) Kerrville Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 31.5 x 43.5 Medium: Oil "Windmill in the Hills" Texas Hill Country Joe G. Russell (1926-2008) He was born i...

Lamar Briggs (1935-2015) Houston Artist Image Size: 14 x 11 Frame Size: 22.75 x 19.75 Medium: Oil "Church Tower" Lamar Briggs (1935-2015) Following is an obituary of the artist, publ...

Dwight Holmes (1900-1986) Fort Worth, San Angelo Artist Image Size: 8 x 10 Frame Size: 12.5 x 14.5 Medium: Oil "Double Dam Area Ft. Worth Texas" Fort Worth Texas One mile upstream from the City Park dam on the Clear Fork of the Trinity River...

Dwight Holmes (1900-1986) Fort Worth, San Angelo Artist Image Size: 9 x 12 Frame Size: 12 x 18 Medium: Oil Dated 1967 "West of Copperas Cove" Texas Dwight Holmes (1900-1986) Dwight C...

John Dudley Image Size: 13.25 x 25.25 Frame Size: 20.25 x 32.25 Medium: Watercolor "Autumn home"

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 27 x 33 Frame Size: 35 x 41 Medium: Oil On Canvas Late 1940s-Early 1950s "Bluebonnet Time" Texas Hill Country Landscape 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. While a few of his early works have a soft, tonalist quality, with subtle gradations of sunset colors, most were painted in a style that fits well within the currents of the late American Impressionist style, with solid drawing and a warm, chromatic palette. Like Robert Wood's works of the 1930s, the paintings Salinas produced as a young man were usually well composed and detailed views of the spring wildflowers in full bloom in the Texas countryside. In contrast to Wood's work, however, early Salinas compositions were usually pure landscapes without the pioneer farms or dilapidated fences that Wood often used to add visual interest to his wildflower scenes, and he also painted scenes of San Antonio itself as his mentor Jose Arpa had done. To residents of the Hill Country, Salinas was especially adept at accurately capturing the palette of the region and its unique atmosphere. In 1939 Salinas began working with Dewey Bradford (1896-1985), one of the great characters of Texas art. Bradford was a second-generation dealer whose family operated the Bradford Paint Company in Austin, where they sold art supplies, framed artwork, restored paintings and exhibited paintings by Texas artists. Salinas was struggling when he met Bradford, but the older man took the young artist under his wing and began to sell his work reliably, even though the prices that people would pay for a painting were still low due to the lingering effects of the Great Depression. Bradford was a born salesman with a gift for storytelling, and truth be told, a bit of embroidery. The relationship between Bradford and Salinas was often rocky, but it was to last the rest of the artist's life and give him a modest sense of loyalty and security, things which are all too rare in the art world. While Bradford could be critical of his work, Salinas knew that he had a dealer who encouraged him, believed in him and was not shy about singing his praises to anyone who entered Bradford's store on Guadalupe Street. During the early years of World War II Salinas met a pretty Mexican woman from Guadalajara named Maria Bonillas, who was working as a secretary for the Mexican National Railways office in San Antonio. While he was walking downtown with a painting of a bullfighter under his arm, he started a conversation with the young woman, and things progressed rapidly. The couple were married on February 15, 1942 and settled into life in bi-lingual San Antonio and they eventually purchased a tidy stone home on Buena Vista street that had a detached studio in back. By the time the United States entered World War II, Salinas was starting to make a decent living selling his art and beginning to garner recognition across Texas. However, in 1943, like millions of other young men, he was drafted into the service of his country. Fortunately, as an older Army draftee with special talents, after his training he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, right in San Antonio, allowing him to remain at home while still completing his obligation to "Uncle Sam." Because of his artistic abilities, Salinas was asked to do paintings for the Army as well as a mural for the Officer's Club, which has been re-discovered in recent years. In his spare time he kept working on landscapes and when the war ended in 1945, he was not faced with the same rocky transition from military to civilian life as many veterans. That same year, Salinas became a father as he and Maria celebrated the birth of his only child, Christina Maria Salinas. Like most landscape artists of the era, Salinas was an avid Plein-air painter, and he took his easel and paint box with him on trips throughout Texas and into Mexico. He and his wife traveled deep into her native country, where the artist painted the majestic volcanic peaks of Iztaccihuatl (known as the "Sleeping Woman" because of its unique shape) and Popocatepetl (called the "smoking mountain" because the volcano is still active), south of Mexico City. Salinas also painted studies of rustic villages and their residents. While his most popular paintings were always the scenes of the Texas Bluebonnets and other wildflowers that bloom all over the Hill Country in the spring, he also painted scenes of the twisted Texas oak trees of central Texas, the more arid landscapes of the Texas panhandle and West Texas, and the historic Texas missions; he even sold rapidly executed scenes of bullfights and cockfights for Mexican-American collectors. By the late 1940s, the American economy was finally growing again and wealthier Texans began to collect Salinas paintings, purchasing them from galleries in San Antonio and Dallas and at Dewey Bradford's County Store Gallery in Austin. Salinas also sold work to the Atlanta dealer Dr. Carlton Palmer, who represented Robert W. Wood for many years. In 1948 Palmer sold two large Salinas paintings to the Citizen National Bank in Abilene, Texas. Because Austin was the state capitol, Bradford counted many of the state's elite among his patrons, and due to his interest in history and literature, he played a large role in the cultural history of central Texas. Bradford introduced a number of the major Texas political figures to Salinas' work, including Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973), who was then in the House of Representatives and on his way to winning a controversial election that vaulted him in the United States Senate. Johnson became an enthusiastic collector, as did his political mentor, the legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn (1882-1961). Johnson decorated his Washington offices with Salinas paintings and he brought a number of them home to his vast LBJ Ranch, near Johnson City, Texas. In spite of his important patrons, Salinas went through a fallow and difficult period in the late 1950s. He had a volatile temperament, which made relationships difficult, and it took great patience for his wife to help him manage his career. As Salinas entered middle age his work began to sell steadily, but except for tourists who purchased his paintings in San Antonio, he was known primarily only to Texas art collectors. All that changed in 1961 with the election of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) to the Presidency of the United States and his running mate Lyndon Johnson to the Vice Presidency. Johnson was an expansive, larger-than-life character and his status as a long, tall Texan in a cowboy hat was a large part of his imposing political image. During his storied career in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) spent their time in Washington in a modest house on the edge of Rock Creek Park, but this home would not do for a Vice President. So, in 1961, the Johnsons purchased a French chateau-styled home in the Spring Valley section of the Capitol. Obtained from the famed socialite and ambassador Perle Mesta (1889-1975), the house came with a fine collection of French furniture and tapestries, and the designer Genevieve Hendricks was hired to meld the French look with objects from the Johnsons' overseas travels and paintings of the flora and fauna of their native Texas. Featured prominently in the foyer were the paintings of Porfirio Salinas. Because of the Johnsons' patronage, his work was mentioned in Time Magazine and other national publications. Lady Bird Johnson loved her landscapes of the Texas Hill Country and told reporters that, "I want to see them when ever I open the door, to remind me where I come from." After President Kennedy's death thrust Lyndon Johnson into the Presidency, he brought his Salinas paintings into the historic halls of the White House, further enhaning the Texas painter's national reputation. At the time of the President Kennedy's assassination, Salinas had completed a scene of a horse drinking titled "Rocky Creek" that was to have been presented to Kennedy during his ill-fated visit to Dallas. Instead, in an effort to memorialize the fallen President, Salinas painted a symbolic work of a lone horse depicted against foreboding clouds. During his tenure in the White House, President Johnson presented a Salinas landscape as a state gift to the President of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1911-1979). During the 1960s, Salinas paintings sold briskly and, thanks to Presidential patronage, for escalating prices. In an interview with a writer from the New York Times, President Johnson enthused about the work of "his favorite artist" and said that, "his work reminds me of the country around the ranch." Salinas was invited to the LBJ Ranch frequently during the Johnson administration and his paintings were hung throughout the ranch, in the President's offices and even in the private quarters of the White House. The connection to President Johnson was a great boon to sales of Salinas paintings, and in 1964, when the demand was at its height, Texas Governor John Connelly (1917-1993) was told that all Salinas'work was sold and that he would have to wait for a painting. In 1960, a half century after his birth, Salinas was honored by his home town of Bastrop, a celebration that touched the modest artist. In 1962 Salinas was given a solo exhibition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio that featured more than twenty of his works. By the early 1960s, sales of reproductions of the artist's landscapes by the New York Graphic Society and other publishers grew rapidly, enlarging his audience throughout the United States. In 1967, Dewey Bradford helped to organize the production of a book of Texas stories titled "Bluebonnets and Cactus" (Austin: Pemberton Press: 1967), which was profusely illustrated with paintings by Salinas. His works were still popular when Salinas died after a brief illness in April of 1973, just a few months after former President Johnson's passing. He was memorialized in the City of Austin by Porfirio Salinas Day, which honored him for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas together with his paintings." Bastrop, Texas, the city of the artist's birth, has been holding a Salinas Art Exhibition annually since 1981. He painted hundreds of scenes of the wildflowers, including the various varieties of Blue Lupin, the state flower, as well as other flowering flora. These show the influence of his artistic mentors Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa Y Perea. Salinas also painted a number of scenes of Prickly Pear Cactus that show the influence of the English painter Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939), who painted many such works during his tenure in Texas. He painted the more arid Texas landscape infrequently and these works are very rare today and sought after by collectors from the Texas Panhandle and West Texas. Salinas also painted many river landscapes along the Guadalupe, Rio Frio, the San Antonio and the Rio Grande. On trips to his wife's homeland of Mexico, he painted a number of scenes of the volcanic peaks as well as scenes of peasant villages and villagers. Figurative paintings are rare among Salinas' works and these scenes of bullfights, fandangos and cock fights are probably the least sought after of his paintings. There are also a small number of modest marines, painted on trips to the Texas and California coast. Salinas paintings are highly prized by collectors of early Texas art, with the paintings of wildflowers in greatest demand. Works by Porfirio Salinas can be found in a number of public collections, including the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas; the Texas State Capitol; the Texas Governor's Mansion; the Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch; the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum in Bonham, Texas; Amarillo High School; the Witte Museum in San Antonio; the historic Joan and Price Daniel House in San Antonio; the Stark Museum in Orange, Texas; the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, Louisiana; the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado; Texas A & M University and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Salinas has been featured in a number of reference works as well as anthologies devoted to American Western Art...

Julian Onderdonk (1882 - 1922) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 6 x 9 Frame Size: 10.75 x 13.75 Medium: Oil Dated 1910 "A Glowing Sky" SW Texas Julian Onderdonk (1882 - 1922) Known as...

Emil Hermann (1871 - 1966) Austria, Ohio, Wichita Falls (Texas) Artist Image Size: 47.5 x 36 Frame Size: 54.5 x 44 Medium: Oil Dated 1918 "Sam Houston" Emil Hermann (1871 - 1966) Emil Hermann (Am.1871-1966) Emil Hermann was born in Vienna of French and Austrian parents. His father was an engineer who did not consider art a proper profession for a young man. But so obvious was Hermann's talent, that his father let him enter the Royal Academy in Vienna. He went on to study at the National Art Institute at Budapest and the Rembrandt Art Institute in Amsterdam. In 1889, Hermann came to the United States to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at the age of nineteen. Hermann was the organizer and first president of the Ohio Brush and Pencil Club and president of the Dayton, Ohio Art Club. As a result of his work in the latter city, a two-million-dollar art center was later founded there. After enrolling in the Academy, he opened his first studio in Philadelphia. In 1890, he received his citizenship papers. His first break came when a Dayton art dealer invited Hermann to hold a one-man art show. From this show, he obtained a position as a muralist with the great Schachne Studios. Soon, he became one of the best-known portrait artists in the area, drawing the leading citizens of Dayton to his studio. The upcoming artist was such a success that, soon, he was traveling throughout the country to execute portrait commissions and hold exhibitions. On one such trip, he was in Tulsa. After viewing his exhibition, a group of Missouri attorneys, some of whom were living in Oklahoma, commissioned Hermann to paint a portrait of General John H. Pershing from an only existing photograph that had been made in France. This work, when completed, was presented to the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, and he was later commissioned to duplicate the portrait for the city of Loclede, Missouri, the birthplace of General Pershing. At a suggestion from his Tulsa friends, Hermann opened an exhibit on the balcony of the Freer Furniture Company, at Ninth and Scott in Wichita Falls, in 1919, in the midst of the great Burkburnett oil boom. Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Kemp commissioned him to do a portrait, which now hangs in the Kemp Public Library. As a result of this show his fame spread and he was soon flooded with offers from all parts of the southwest. The Fort Worth citizens club gave him a commission to do a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt...

Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Rhode Island Artist Image Size: 36 x 28 Frame Size: 42.5 x 34.5 Newcomb Macklin Frame. Medium: Oil Dated 1889 "Duck Hunt" Mergansers Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Edward Chalmers Leavitt, artist, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 9, 1842, the son of Rev. Jonathan and Charlotte Esther (Stearns) Leavitt. His paternal ancestor was John Leavitt, who came to Massachusetts Bay in the first ship and settled in Hingham. On the maternal side, he is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, who came to Plymouth in the Mayflower. Leavitt was educated in private schools in Providence, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. During the Civil War in 1862 and 1863, he served in the navy on the U.S.S. Galena. In his profession of artist, Mr. Leavitt is especially noted as a painter of fruit, flowers and still life. He exhibited in the National Academy for several years and has made many successful exhibitions in Providence and Boston. He was a member of the Boston and Providence art clubs, and the Providence Press Club. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics his proclivities are mainly Republican. He has been twice married: first, May 19, 1877, to Ellen M. Fuller; and second, April 22, 1880, to Elizabeth S. Chace. Submitted November 2004 by Edward Bentley, Art Collector and Researcher from Lansing, Michigan. Source is the publication "Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life from the State of Rhode Island." New England magazine. 1896. Edward C. Leavitt, born in 1842, has been described as "Providence, Rhode Island's leading still-life painter" in the late 19th Century. (Zellman 324) His teacher, James Morgan Lewin, was a prominent still-life painter in Fall River, Massachusetts, a neighboring town. Leavitt, a detailed, sharp-focused, realistic painter, was in love with texture and light, and was prolific and successful, painting a variety of still life subjects including flowers, fruit and even fish and dead game animals. His objects, including costly antiques and household decorative items, were often placed on ornamental, gleaming surfaces. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and 1890s. The artist, who died in 1904, moved from a position of success and popularity to being ignored for many years until the publication of William H. Gerdts and Russell Burke's American Still-Life Painting in 1971. It is uncertain whether this disastrous loss of respect took place because Leavitt's work declined in quality during the last decade of his life, or because he was a victim of the periodic shifts in taste and fashion that afflict the arts. Sources: Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art Biography from Roger King Fine Art Edward Leavitt was one of the leading still life artists of nineteenth century New England. He lived and worked in Providence, and studied with James Morgan Lewin, a leading painter of the Fall River School, which, in the late 19th Century, was one of the most important centers of still life painting. While Lewin branched out into other types of painting, Leavitt remained devoted to the art of the still life. His paintings are sharply focused, realistic, and carefully finished. Ornate objects such as urns, ewers, platters, cut glassware...

Herb Booth (1942 - 2014) Texas Artist Image Size: 29 x 41 Frame Size: 39 x 51 Medium: Watercolor "Waterfowl" Geese, ducks, more Herb Booth (1942 - 2014) Wat...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite Shallow Bowl 5" diameter 1.5" tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a syntheti...

Carmie Born 1958 Tippy Messenger Box 7 2.5 x 2 Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a synthetic organic chem...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite "Hut Box" 4.5 tall 2.5 Wide Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a synthetic organ...

Carmie Born 1958 Natural Edge Mesquite Bowl 8.75" x 7.5" 2" tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a synt...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite Bowl with Beads 7" diameter 3.25" Tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as a synt...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite Closed Form Bowl with Beads 7" diameter 3.5" Tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he work...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite Bowl with Turquoise 11.5" Diameter 2.75" tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as...

Carmie Born 1958 Mesquite Bowl with Turquoise 11.5" Diameter 2.75" tall Biography Carmie Born 1958 Wood Turner Carmie K. Acosta was born and raised in San Antonio. By day he works as...

John Leopard (1800-1883) Pottery Rusk County Henderson Texas Pottery (1850-1883) 5 or 6 Gallon Ovoid East Texas Churn 18 inches tall 11 inches at widest point Utilitarian John Leopard (1800-1883) Pottery Rusk County Henderson Texas Pottery (1850-1883) One natural resource found in Rusk County provided an abundance of raw material for the development of industry in the county. When pioneers arrived in Rusk County in the early 1800's, they found a variety of clays suitable for brick making, tiles, statuary and pottery. Pottery making is one of the world's oldest crafts, with examples of pottery traced back as far as the 7th century BC. Amongst the earliest finds are artistic figures, images of people and animals, and household implements including breakers and dishes. Anthropologists often use the techniques and patterns found in ancient burial sites to form an accurate picture of society through the ages. Earthenware (jugs, churns, and vessels of all kinds) made in Rusk County found a ready market. Some of the early potters were Brown, Leopard, Rushton, Prothro and Russell. Many of Henderson's downtown buildings were made from bricks baked in the kiln of the Howard Brothers...

Jose Vives-Atsara (1919-2004) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 24 x 30 Frame Size: 34 x 39 Medium: Oil Applied by Palette Knife Dated 1981 "Houses on the Hills" , Catalonia, Spain Biog...

Jose Vives-Atsara (1919-2004) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 20 x 16 Frame Size: 30 x 25 Medium: Oil Applied by Palette Knife "Flores Cerca de la Puerta" Flowers near the door Biogra...

Jose Vives-Atsara (1919-2004) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 25 x 29 Medium: Oil Applied by Palette Knife Dated 1967 "Farm Road, Spain" Biography Jose Vives-Atsar...

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 9 x 7 Frame Size: 18 x 22.5 Medium: Oil Circa late 1930s early 40s "Texas Hills & Valleys" Porfirio Salinas was a self-tau...

John Austin Hanna Born 1942 Fredericksburg Artist Size: 12 x 16 Frame 21 x 25 Medium: Oil Dated 1999 "Johnnies House" 1860s Fredericksburg Home BIO: John Austin Hanna - Fredericksburg, Texas - b. 1942 John graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Advertising Art and Design. As a 20-year illustrator in New York and Dallas he has been published in several magazines such as Automotive Quarterly, Car and Driver, Saga, Town & Country, Flying, Popular Boating, and Popular Science. He has also done work for several large corporations such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, Borden’s, Pearl Beer...

Maureen Tarazon (1934-) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 24 x 30 Medium: Oil "Blue & Gold" Bluebonnet Biography Maureen Tarazon (1934-Present) Maureen (Mrs. Louis T...

Nellie Buel 1908-2002 Comfort Texas Image Size: 36 x 24 Frame Size: 42 x 30 Medium: Print Circa 1960s "El Grito" Biography Nellie Buel 1908-2002 Nellie V. Buel (nee Upton), was born in 1908. Nellie attended Oregon State in Corvallis and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a BA in Anthropology and Art. After many years as a faculty and Air Force wife and mother, Nellie resumed her full time interest in art. She studied under many notable artist-teachers, including Harding Black, Harold Roney, Dennis Olson and Kent Rush. Nellie Buel's work has been accepted in local and national juried shows. She has won numerous awards and prizes from art groups such as the San Antonio Art League and the San Antonio Watercolor Group, among others. Nellie's work is also included in permanent collections at St. Mary's University, the Healy-Murphy Learning Center, McAllen International Museum, the Hal Prince Collection (NY), Tamarind Institute Archives (Albuquerque, NM), and the McNay Art Museum Study Collection. Nellie V. Buel died in the United States in 2002. Nellie V. (Upton) Buel, born January 15, 1908, Portland, OR, died November 15, 2002. She attended Oregon State in Corvallis and graduated from University of California-Berkeley with a BA in Anthropology and Art. After many years as a faculty wife, Air Force wife and mother, Nellie resumed her full time interest in art. She studied under many notable artist-teachers, including Harding Black, Harold Roney, Dennis Olson, and Kent Rush. Although she was equally talented and proficient in all media, her interests soon specialized in graphics, in particular hand-pulled, limited editions of etchings, calligraphy, monotype, and woodblocks on handmade papers. Her work has been accepted in local and national juried shows, with awards and prizes from art groups such as San Antonio Art League, San Antonio Watercolor Group, Hill Country Arts Foundations, Texas Watercolor Society, and International Society of Experimental Artists. Nellie's work is also included in permanent collections at St. Mary's University, Healy-Murphy Learning Center, McAllen International Museum, Hal Prince Collection (NY), Tamarind Institute Archives (Albuquerque, NM) and McNay Art Museum Study Collection. After she and her husband retired to Boerne, they founded the Cibolo Studio in Comfort, Nellie's art studio and gallery, which she shared with Debbie Little-Wilson. Working in her studio, participating in shows, and sharing knowledge, techniques, and ideas with other artists, she continued to expand her artistic endeavors and creativity until very recently. She also gave of her time and talent through her teaching and critiquing other artists' works. Sadly, the contents of Cibolo Studio were heavily damaged during July, 2002 floods, causing closure of the studio after 30 years at the same location. She is predeceased by her husband of 58 years, Col. (USAF) Jack Buel. She is survived by her daughter, Ellen Todd Hanks (George); son, John Thomas Buel; three grandaughters, Kathryn Buel, Elizabeth Buel, and Natalie Mund (Randy) and three great-grandchildren. She is also survived by a host of artist friends and colleagues, but most especially by Debbie Little-Wilson, Dripping Springs...

Nellie Buel 1908-2002 Comfort Texas Image Size: 9 x 6.5 Frame Size: 14 x 11 Medium: Lithograph Dated 1961 "Flight" Biography Nellie Buel 1908-2002 Nellie V. Buel (nee Upton), was born in 1908. Nellie attended Oregon State in Corvallis and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a BA in Anthropology and Art. After many years as a faculty and Air Force wife and mother, Nellie resumed her full time interest in art. She studied under many notable artist-teachers, including Harding Black, Harold Roney, Dennis Olson and Kent Rush. Nellie Buel's work has been accepted in local and national juried shows. She has won numerous awards and prizes from art groups such as the San Antonio Art League and the San Antonio Watercolor Group, among others. Nellie's work is also included in permanent collections at St. Mary's University, the Healy-Murphy Learning Center, McAllen International Museum, the Hal Prince Collection (NY), Tamarind Institute Archives (Albuquerque, NM), and the McNay Art Museum Study Collection. Nellie V. Buel died in the United States in 2002. Nellie V. (Upton) Buel, born January 15, 1908, Portland, OR, died November 15, 2002. She attended Oregon State in Corvallis and graduated from University of California-Berkeley with a BA in Anthropology and Art. After many years as a faculty wife, Air Force wife and mother, Nellie resumed her full time interest in art. She studied under many notable artist-teachers, including Harding Black, Harold Roney, Dennis Olson, and Kent Rush. Although she was equally talented and proficient in all media, her interests soon specialized in graphics, in particular hand-pulled, limited editions of etchings, calligraphy, monotype, and woodblocks on handmade papers. Her work has been accepted in local and national juried shows, with awards and prizes from art groups such as San Antonio Art League, San Antonio Watercolor Group, Hill Country Arts Foundations, Texas Watercolor Society, and International Society of Experimental Artists. Nellie's work is also included in permanent collections at St. Mary's University, Healy-Murphy Learning Center, McAllen International Museum, Hal Prince Collection (NY), Tamarind Institute Archives (Albuquerque, NM) and McNay Art Museum Study Collection. After she and her husband retired to Boerne, they founded the Cibolo Studio in Comfort, Nellie's art studio and gallery, which she shared with Debbie Little-Wilson. Working in her studio, participating in shows, and sharing knowledge, techniques, and ideas with other artists, she continued to expand her artistic endeavors and creativity until very recently. She also gave of her time and talent through her teaching and critiquing other artists' works. Sadly, the contents of Cibolo Studio were heavily damaged during July, 2002 floods, causing closure of the studio after 30 years at the same location. She is predeceased by her husband of 58 years, Col. (USAF) Jack Buel. She is survived by her daughter, Ellen Todd Hanks (George); son, John Thomas Buel; three grandaughters, Kathryn Buel, Elizabeth Buel, and Natalie Mund (Randy) and three great-grandchildren. She is also survived by a host of artist friends and colleagues, but most especially by Debbie Little-Wilson, Dripping Springs...