Texas Artist Directory

Artists, Painters and Sculptors in Texas

Please browse our directory of Texas artists. You are welcome to contribute. 

Alexandre Hogue (February 22, 1898-July 22, 1994) American artist active from the 1930s through the 1960s. He is a realist painter associated with the Dallas Nine; the majority of his works focus on Southwestern and Midwestern landscapes during the Dust Bowl.

Allie Victoria Tennant (1898?–1971) A sculptor associated with the Dallas Nine and a St. Louis native, Tennant moved with her family to Dallas at an early age. From 1927 to 1928 she attended the Art Students League in New York City. In a group of artists dominated by men, Tennant made portrait busts, full-figure commemorative works, fountain pieces, and architectural sculptures. One work, Negro Head (Negro) (1935), is now in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. She also completed the relief Cattle, Oil, and Wheat (1940), for the post office in Electra,  funded by the Work Projects Administration. Tennant won prizes for sculptures exhibited in the Dallas Allied Arts exhibitions in 1928, 1929, and 1932, and in 1935 won the Kiest Memorial Prize from the Dallas Art Association.  She received national recognition with exhibited works at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1935), the Art Institute of Chicago (1935), the Kansas City Art Institute (1935), the Architectural League of New York (1938), the World’s Fair in New York (1939), the Whitney Museum of American Art (1940), the National Sculpture Society (1940), and the Carnegie Institute (1941). Source: Texas State Historical Association.

Amy Freeman Lee (1914-2004 ) A native of Seguin, Texas, Lee would become a permanent resident of San Antonio. A self-taught watercolorist, Lee helped found the Texas Watercolor Society in 1949. Her works were exhibited in Mexico City and in traveling exhibits at arranged by the Smithsonian and California National Watercolor Society. She worked as an art critic for the San Antonio Express-News and radio station KONO. She was the focus of a 1984 CBS documentary titled Reality is Becoming. Her works are included in the collections of the University of Texas at Austin, the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences and the San Antonio Art League.

Anna Keener (1895-1982) Known for her landscapes, Keener studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit School of Design, Kansas City Art Institute, University of New Mexico and California College of Arts and Crafts. She headed the art department at Eastern New Mexico University, Portales. Retiring from Eastern New Mexico University in 1954, Keener moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continued to paint. In 1962 she left retirement to return to school, this time at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. She was the author of Spontaneity in Design (Kansas City: Missouri Valley Press, 1923).

Audley Dean Nicols (1875 – 1941) Born in Pittsburgh, Nicols became known as a painter of cowboys and desert scenes.  He received his formal training at the Art Students League and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under Kenyon Cox. He worked as an illustrator completing works for  Collier’s, McClure’s, and Cosmopolitan. Nicols sold his painting of El Capitan mountain to the Santa Fe Railway which released it as a lithograph.  He was a member of the National Academy of Design.

Ben L. Culwell (1918 – 1992) Born in San Antonio this abstract expressionist painter is known for his participation in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1946 Fourteen Americans exhibition. At the time Culwell was living in Dallas. His work is included in the permanent collection of Houston’s Menil Collection, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the Museum of Modern Art.  In 2007, his work was included in an exhibition at Baylor University, Texas Modern: The Rediscovery of Early Texas Abstraction 1935–1965.

Barbara Maples (1912-1999) Born in Temple, Texas and a graduate of Baylor University and Columbia University, Maples also took classes at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Known as a modernist painter, she taught in the Dallas public schools, at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and at Southern Methodist University.

Beth Lea Clardy (1919-2004) A resident of Fort Worth, Clardy studied at Texas Christian University with Samuel P Ziegler. She later took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Bill Komodore (1932-2012) Born in Athens, Greece, Dallas painter and SMU professor, Komodore studied with George Rickey, Mark Rothko, and David Smith at Tulane University. Known for his figurative works, Komodore played with the mythical idea of Arcadia as a place of creative perception. His work is represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; The National Gallery of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Blanche McVeigh (1895-1970) Fort Worth Circle printmaker and art teacher, McVeigh was born in St. Charles, Missouri but spent most of her life in Fort Worth. She studied art at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and later at Washington University in St. Louis. She also attended the Art Students League in New York City.

Boyer Gonzales Jr (1909-1987) A native of Galveston, Gonzales grew up in an artist’s colony in New York where his father was a member. There he was befriended by artists including Robert Henri and George Bellows. He attended the University of Virginia where he was introduced to Paul Cézanne. His paintings we included in exhibitions in Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and the Texas Centennial in Dallas. Relocating to San Antonio, he continued to build his reputation and show work at the Golden Gate Exhibition, the 1939 World’s Fair and the Corcoran Gallery. Beginning with realism, Gonzales moved to bold abstraction. His works are held at the Tacoma and Seattle Art Museums, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Witte Memorial Museum.

Bror Utter (1913-1993) A Fort Worth painter, graphic artist, teacher and administrator, Utter was a member of the Fort Worth Circle.

Carl Benton Compton (1905-1981) Native to Iowa and an authority on the Tarascan art of Mexico, Compton studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and elsewhere before receiving a Master of Fine Arts from La Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He taught for many years at the North Texas State Teachers College in Denton.

Carlos Merida (1891-1984) This well-known Latin-American artist has several connections to Texas cities.  Merida is the creator of the mural in San Antonio Convention Center which captures the spirit of the HemisFair ’68 theme: Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas. Merida was also on the staff at UNT.

Cecil Casebier (1922-1996) The Texas-born Casebier graduated from the University of Southern California and went on to do graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin. Casebier, who is known for his paintings, murals, mosaics and stained glass, served as chairman of the Arts Center of San Antonio. His work can be seen at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church there.

Charles T. Jones (1952- ) was born in Gilmer, Texas in 1952. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Charles T Williams (1918-1966) Charles T. Williams was a versatile and prolific sculptor who spent much of his career in Fort Worth. His often monumental works were well-suited for public spaces.

Cynthia Brants (1924-2006) Fort Worth native Cynthia Brants attended Sarah Lawrence College and studied with Blanche McVeigh. She later taught at the college and Texas Woman’s University. She is part of the Fort Worth Circle, a group of artists in the city exploring the possibilities of modern art in the 1930s through the 1950s.

David Brownlow (1915-2008) A member of the Fort Worth Circle, David Brownlow’s work is included in the collections of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Amarillo Museum of Art. Self-taught from library books would spend a career in industry before quitting to become a full-time artist. He painted primarily with a palette knife and was known for his abstractions of architectural forms.

Dan Wingren (1923-1998) Wingren was born in Dallas and educated at Southern Methodist University under Jerry Bywaters and Otis Dozier. He received his MFA from the University of Iowa and taught at both schools. His work was selected for purchase by the Carnegie Institute at the 1955 Carnegie International Exhibit in Pittsburgh.

Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939) Dawson studied in Giverny, Paris and his birthplace of London before coming to the U.S. in 1893. He lived in several U.S. states and Canada before settling in San Antonio in 1926. Dawson-Watson is known for his paintings of cacti. He became famous in 1927 for winning the largest cash prize in American Art, the Texas Competitive Wildflower Competition. The winning painting, Glory of the Morning, was presented to the Lotos Club in New York by Edgar B. Davis. His works are on display in the Witte Museum in San Antonio and at the San Antonio Art League.

DeForrest Judd (1919-1993) Ohio native and Texas modernist DeForrest Judd lived most of his life in Dallas and taught at Southern Methodist University. Judd graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1938 and later studied at the Colorado Spring Fine Arts Center under Otis Dozier. Judd’s semi-abstract landscapes are known for their bold use of color. His work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art and elsewhere and is contained in the permanent collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Dallas Museum of Art.

Dick Wray (1933-2013) Houston Abstract Expressionist Dick Wray attended the University of Houston School of Architecture followed by studies at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, Germany. He taught at the Glassell School of Art from 1968 to 1982. In 2000 he was named Texas Artist of the Year by Art League Houston. Wray’s works are held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.

Dickson Reeder (1912-1970) Fort Worth native Edward Dickson Reeder painted with Fort Worth artists Sallie Blythe Mummert and Sallie Gillespie while still in elementary school. He went on to study at the Art Students League in New York City and later Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico, Ireland, London, and Paris. He lived for a time in New York where he worked illustrating books. After relocating to his hometown, he taught at both Texas Wesleyan College and later at Our Lady of Victory College. Reeder was a member of the Fort Worth Circle.

Don Adair Brown (1898-1958) A painter, commercial artist and illustrator, Brown also spent many years as a newspaper correspondent. Born in Taylor, Texas, Brown attended the Art Institute of Chicago and later studied with Boardman Robinson, Thomas Hart Benton, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan at the Art Students League of New York. Brown was also a student of Andre L’hote in Paris and attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere between 1923 and 1926. After returning to the U.S., he taught drawing and painting at the College of Marshall and joined the faculty at Centenary College in 1934 as the head of the art department. In the 50s, he taught at a summer art school on Caddo Lake.

Dorothy Hood (1919-2000) Houston modernist Dorothy Hood was mentored in Mexico by Juan Orozco. She studied at Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Students League of New York. She lived in Houston with her husband, Bolivian composer, Velasco Maidana. Her work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She was the subject of the documentary Dorothy Hood: the Color of Life.

Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle (1901-2002) Born in Nebraska, LeSelle was one of the first Texas painters to paint entirely in abstract and is well-known as a Texas Modernist. he received her MA from the University of Chicago in 1926 and had her first solo exhibit at the University of Chicago that year. Later she studied under Hans Hoffmann and often worked in Provincetown, the artists’ colony where Hofmann’s workshop was located. She taught at Texas Woman’s University beginning in 1928 and retired in 1972.

Edmund Kinzinger (1888-1963) Born in Pforzheim, Germany and trained in Germany and Paris, Kinzinger taught in Munich, where he met his to-be wife Alice Fish Kinzinger, an American. Traveling to Minneapolis, Kinzinger taught at the Minneapolis Art Institute in the summer of 1928 and then at the Minneapolis Art Students League. Returning to Germany, he served as director of the Hans Hoffman Schule fur Bildende Kuntz, Munichand at the same time taught in Spain and St. Tropez, France. He also served as director of the Ecole de l’Epoque, Paris (1933 – 1934).  Returning to the U.S.,  in 1935 became chairman of the art department at Baylor University, Waco, After more than a decade there, he would attend the University of Iowa and paint in Taos. Following a divorce and bouts with depression, he stopped painting in 1948 when he moved to live with his son in Delavan, Wisconsin.

Edward Bearden (1919-1980) A Dallas native and alumni of Southern Methodist University (SMU), Bearden went on to study with Otis Dozier at Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Bearden taught at SMU, served as an assistant to Jerry Bywaters and owned an advertising agency. Bearden is especially noted for presidential portraits and of actors in the movie Giant, when the movie was being made in Marfa, Texas.  

Edward Eisenlohr (1872-1961) Eisenlohr studied with Frank Reaugh and Julian Onderdonk while working as a banker, a job he left in 1934 to work as a painter. He took a class in Woodstock New York from Lowell Birge Harrison. He painted landscapes primarily and worked in pastel and lithography.

Eleanor Rogers Onderdonk (1884-1964) Born in San Antonio, Eleanor Onderdonk was a member of one of Texas’ most prominent art families. She painted portraits, landscapes and miniatures as well as working as a fine-art teacher and administrator. In 1927 Eleanor Onderdonk became curator of art at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, a position she held until her retirement in 1958. During her tenure as curator, she organized three exhibitions of early Texas artists.

Everett Spruce (1908-2002) A Texas regionalist and native of Arkansas, Everett Franklin Spruce is known for his scenes of the Big Bend Hill Country, Gulf Coast, and West Texas. Spruce exhibited at the Texas Centennial Exposition and in 1937 was the first Dallas artist to exhibit at New York’s Delphic Studios. The Museum of Modern Art acquired a Spruce painting in 1939. Spruce taught art at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Texas at Austin.

Florence McClung (1894-1992) Trained as a pianist, McClung became a painter, printmaker and art teacher.  She grew up in Dallas where she studied with Frank Reaugh, Frank Klepper, and others. She painted for periods of time in Taos between 1928 and 1932 joining a circle of the Taos Society of Artists. Excluded from the Lone Star Printmakers, McClung became an active member of the Printmakers Guild (renamed Texas Printmakers in 1952) in the 1940s and 50s.

Floyd Crews (1873-1958) This Illinois native studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. After closing his commercial art studio in that city, he relocated to El Paso where he painted landscapes. He was also a book illustrator.

Forrest Bess (1911 – 1977) Known for being both visionary and eccentric this Bay City, Texas native picked up his love of art from his mother. A head injury sustained in the army led Bess to an isolated camp where he his uncontrollable visions.  Correspondence now held by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art reveals Bess considered his paintings to be part of a grander theory based in part on the philosophy of Carl Jung. Bess admired the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder and Arthur Dove.

Frank Dolejska (1921-1989) Born in Houston, Dolejska was one of the first non-objective painters in the state. A founding member of the Contemporary Arts Association in Houston, his work was shown in many exhibitions including the 1940 Texas General Exhibition and shows in Houston. His work was the focus of a one-man show at the Corpus Christi Art Museum, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Frank Klepper  (1890-1952) Born in Plano, Klepper attended the Aunspaugh Art School in Dallas and the Art Institute of Chicago.  After serving in World War I, he stayed in France to study art. Along with David Guian, he founded the Southwestern School of Fine Arts in Dallas and started the Klepper Sketch Club.

Frank Reaugh (December 29, 1860 – May 6, 1945) Artist, photographer, inventor, patron of the arts, and teacher, Reaugh was called the “Dean of Texas Painters.”He devoted his career to visual documentation in pastel and paint, portraying the vast, still unsettled regions of the Great Plains and the American Southwest. He was active in the Society of Western Artists.

Frederick E Darge (1900-1978) Born in Hamburg, Germany, Darge would become known for his western scenes. Immigrating to the U.S. in 1924, Darge attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Student’s League in New York. He lived in both San Antonio and Dallas.

Gene Owens (1931- ) A native of Birdville, Texas, Owens would return to his home state to teach after receiving a B.A. from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and an M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. After a few years, however, he would commit himself full-time to making sculpture. In the 91960s he served as assistant to the internationally-known sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. Owens is known for his bronze abstractions as well as porcelain sculptures.

George Grammer (1928-) George Grammer is a member of the artists known as the Fort Worth Circle. Grammer began painting in the late 40s. He studied under Kelly Fearing at Texas Weslyan College and continued his education in San Miguel de Allende and the Art Students League in New York, where he became a full-time resident in 1957. His works have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere.

Gordon Smith (1927-2001) Smith was the son of W.D. Smith (see entry) and joined his father’s company after graduating from North Texas Agricultural College (now the University of Texas at Arlington). An accomplished pilot Gordon Smith produced an expansive yet detailed aerial photography. Gordon was honored at the Southwestern Photographers Association for his photograph “Curves.”

Hal Normand (1941-) San Antonio native Hal Normand studied under noted painters studied under Bror Utter, McKie Trotter, David Brownlow and with  Loren Mozley, William Lester, Everett Spruce, Charles Umlauf, Constance Forsyth and Ralph White. His paintings have appeared in numerous exhibitions. Hal displays his early work at Texas Art Collector.

Hale Bolton (1879-1920) Born in Iowa and known for his landscape paintings, Bolton studied with prominent Texas artist Frank Reaugh. Bolton attended the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts and went on to study in Holland and Paris. He had a studio in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas.

Harold D. Bugbee (1900-1963) Bugbee spent summers at the Taos Art Colony, followed by the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines under the portrait painter Charles Atherton Cumming.  He made annual trips to Taos where he painted with W. Herbert Dunton, Leon Gaspard, Frank Hoffman and Ralph Meyers. Two of the three murals Bugbee painted for Amarillo Army Air Field are in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

Henry Einfeldt (1873-1952) Most known for Bluebonnet paintings.

Henri Gadbois (1930-) Born in Houston, Gadbois is known for painting in a “Paris Salon Style and known for his abstract landscapes. His paintings are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Old Jail Art Center and the Blanton Museum of Art.

Hermann Lungkwitz (1813–1891) was a 19th Century German-born Texas romantic landscape artist and photographer whose work became the first pictorial record of the Texas Hill Country. Also trained in Germany, Lungkwitz emigrated to the United States, landing first in New York City. They migrated to Wheeling, West Virginia, but decided on the destination of Texas in 1851.  His Texas subjects were the German settlements of New Braunfels and Sisterdale, the Hamilton Pool and West Cave at Round Mountain, Marble Falls, and areas around Austin and San Antonio. From 1866-1870, Lundkwitz ran a San Antonio photography studio with Carl G. von Iwonski.

Ira McDade (1857-1961) A resident of both Pittsburgh and Fort Worth, this artist painted in both cities.

Jack Boynton (1928-2010) A key figure in the post-World War II Houston art scene, Fort Worth native Jack Boynton began exhibiting paintings in 1950 and has been included in numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. He worked as an instructor at the University of Houston, San Francisco Art Institute and as a professor at the University of St. Thomas (Texas).

Jack (John Bruce) Erwin (1920-2009) A native of Jacksboro, Texas, and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture, Erwin was also an accomplished artist and violin maker. From his Dallas home, Erwin recorded scenes and events in plein-air. His works were exhibited throughout the state including at the Dallas Art Museum and Dallas Public Library.

Jack Vallee (1921-1986) Wichita Fallas native Jack Vallee was a realist associated with the Brandywine tradition of artists that surrounded the Wyeth Family. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, and the Berskshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Jean Lacy (1932-) Born in Washington, DC, Dallas collage artist Jean Lacy has worked largely unnoticed in her private domain. She has been commissioned to produce stained glass windows in churches from Houston to Queens.

John Brough Miller (1933-2010) Michigan-born Sculptor John Brough Miller received his Masters of Fine Arts in 1964 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and moved to Texas in 1964. He spent nearly 30 years as a Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture at Texas Woman’s University. He is known for his steel sculptures he created outside his garage in Argyle.  Commissioned works include those at Valley House Gallery in Dallas, Dallas Public Library, Abilene Fine Arts Museum, Amarillo Art Center, Los Angeles International Airport and elsewhere.

John E. Douglass (1905-1969) Douglas studied with Frank Reaugh and later with Thomas Hart Benton. A member of the Dallas Nine, he assisted on murals and sculptural decorations erected for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. He studied in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico as well as the Art Students League in New York.

John Eliot Jenkins (1868-1937) Trained in Paris at the Academie Julian and Academie Colarossi, Jenkins studied with Claude Monet. Known for his landscape paintings and portraits, he worked in Amarillo, Austin and Houston as well as Tulsa and Wichita.

Jose Arpa y Perea (1858-1952) Born in Spain, Perea attended the School of Fine Arts in Seville before settling in Mexico, then San Antonio. Nicknamed the “Sunshine Man” for his sunny landscapes, Perea served as director of the San Antonio Art School from 1926-1929. During his years in San Antonio, Texas he influenced many painters, most notably Xavier Gonzalez, Octavio Medellín, and Porfirio Salinas. Ten of his paintings are in the collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Josephine Mahaffey(1903-1982) First studying at the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman’s University), this prolific artist became well-known in Fort Worth and beyond. She was nicknamed Mama Mahaffey, the Texas Dynamo by Coronet Magazine and recognized by “Josephine Mahaffey Day” during the 1968 Texas State Fair. Mahaffey worked primarily in water-based paints but was proficient in oil. She taught at the Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Art Center, the Northside Boy’s Club, and the Arlington YWCA.

Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) The son of painter Robert Jenkins Onderdonk Julian Onderdonk was born in San Antonio. Often called “the father of Texas painting,” Julian Onderdonk studied in New York with  William Merritt Chase. His most popular subjects were bluebonnet landscapes. President George W. Bush decorated the Oval Office with three of Onderdonk’s paintings. His work is represented in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Dallas Museum of Art and elsewhere.

Kazuya Sakai (1927-2001) Argentina-born, Sakai was educated in Japan. He returned to Argentina in 1951 and began painting and exhibiting at La Cueva Gallery in 1952. He then moved to New York and remained there until 1965, when he relocated to Mexico. In 1988 he moved back to the United States and taught at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). While in Mexico he abandoned gestural painting replacing it with the abstract geometric forms he is best known for. His work can be found at Museo de Arte Moderno in Tokyo, Japan; Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, Brazil and the University of Austin Museum, Texas. Taught Maryanne Meltzer and others at UTD.

Kelly Fearing (1918-2011) Artist, art educator and University of Texas at Austin Professor Emeritus, Fearing has been described as a maverick of Texas modernism. A Fordyce, Arkansas native, Fearing studied art at Louisiana Tech University are later at Columbia University. A member of the Fort Worth Circle, Fearing came to The University of Texas at Austin as the Ashbel Smith Professor in Art in 1947 and retired in 1987.

Lia Cuilty (dates needed) Ciudad Chihuahua, Mexico native Lia Cuilty enrolled in the Dallas Art Institute under Olin Travis and later the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts where she met other Fort Worth Circle members. She was chosen for several of the Fort Worth Local Artist Shows in the 1940s for her gouache works and her work was included the Texas General Exhibition.

Loren Mozley (1905-1989) Born in Brookport, Illinois,  Mozley was a well-known painter of southwestern landscapes. From 1929 to 1931 Mozley studied at the Colarossi and Chaumière academies in Paris where he copied paintings at the Louvre. He then spent time in New York City where he befriended Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Georgia O’Keefe. Returning to Taos where he has spent time as a child, Mozley received WPA commissions to paint murals for the Federal Building in Albuquerque and the post office in Clinton, Oklahoma. Relocating to Austin, Mozley served as acting chairman of the University of Texas, Austin department of art from 1942 to 1945 and as president of the Texas Fine Arts Association. In 1975 his career was commemorated by a retrospective exhibition and catalog organized by the University of Texas Art Gallery.

Luis Jiménez (1940-2006) Born in El Paso, Luis Jiménez was best known for his large polychromed fiberglass sculptures, including the 32-foot Blue Mustang at the Denver Airport.

Marie “Mamie” Cronin (1879-1951)- Born in Sedalia, Missouri in 1879, Cronin moved with her family moved to Palestine, Texas then to Bartlett (1916). Following high school, she studied art in Chicago, followed by a two-year period of music, art and theater study in New York.  She went on to spend five years studying art in Paris, under the teaching of instructors Claudio Castelucho and Lucien Simon at the  Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. Four of her paintings were exhibited at Salon de Paris/ Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts. In 1926, Cronin became first/only woman railroad president in Texas (presumably in the entire U.S.) – Bartlett Western Railway. Her commissioned portraits include those in the State Capitol Building in Austin (early Texas governors  O. B. Colquitt, Mr. and Mrs . John Reagan and James Ferguson). Also in the collection are portraits of Joanna Troutman (who designed the Texas Flag) and the last survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto, Colonel Alonzo Steele.

Maryanne Meltzer (1922-2014) Maryanne Meltzer started painting at 12 years old. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute on a youth scholarship. Her family settled near downtown Dallas in the 1940s. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Texas Women’s University in Denton in 1969. She went on to earn a Master’s in the Humanities in 1990 from the University of Texas, Dallas. She taught art at both DISD and the Dallas Community College Continuing Education Division. She was president of the Dallas Women’s Caucus for Art and a member of the board of Directors for the National Women’s Caucus for Art, Regional Vice President of the Coalition of Women’s Art Organizations and Dallas Art District Friends. She was a founding member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Merritt Thomas Mauzey (1898-1973) A native of Clifton, Texas, Mauzey is best known for his illustrations and prints. Mauzey wrote and illustrated several children’s books. Two of his oil paintings were exhibited at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. The University of Southern Mississippi published the Catalogue of the Merritt Mauzey Collection in 1971. An Artist’s Notebook: The Life and Art of Merritt Mauzey was published in 1979.

Murray Bewley (1884-1964) A Fort Worth native, Bewley studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the New York School of Art. His teachers include William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux and Robert Henri. He had studios in Beverly Hills, New York and Paris. The majority of Bewley’s subjects are portraits and nudes. However, the works completed near the end of his life are primarily still lifes and flower compositions. His work is represented in the Dallas Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Octavio Medellín (1907-1999) Born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico Medellín moved to San Antonio and attended the San Antonio School of Art.  He later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago but would return to Mexico in 1929 he traveled to Mexico to study native and primitive crafts.  Back in San Antonio, Medellín founded the La Vallita Art Gallery where he taught sculpture. He also taught at the North Texas State College in Denton for five years and at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts for 21 years.  He then went on to Mendocino Art Center in California and the Medellin School of Sculpture where he taught until retiring to Bandera, Texas.

Otis M. Dozier (1904–1987) A painter, printmaker, and teacher and native of Forney, Texas Dozier first became prominent as a member of the Dallas Nine. A charter member of the Dallas Artists League Dozier exhibited his work in the Dallas Allied Arts exhibitions, and from 1936 to 1938 taught at the Dallas School of Creative Arts. Dozier won prizes in several Allied Arts exhibitions (1932, 1935, 1947) and Texas General exhibitions (1946, 1947). He executed murals at Forest Avenue High School and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (later Texas A&M University) and, under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, painted murals for post offices in Giddings (1937), Arlington (1941), and Fredericksburg (1942). He began establishing a national profile during the early 1930s, when he exhibited his work at the International Watercolor Exhibition, San Francisco (1932); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1933); and the First National Exhibition, Rockefeller Center, New York (1936). Source: Texas State Historical Association.

Perry Nichols (1911-1992) A native of Dallas and original member of the Dallas Nine, Nichols studied under Frank Reaugh, Alexandre Hogue and Frank Klepper. He assisted with murals and sculptures for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition at Fair Park and taught at the Hockaday School in Dallas.

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852 – 1917) Born in Maryland, Robert Onderdonk was a long-time art teacher in San Antonio and Dallas. Robert Onderdonk studied art at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York in the 1870s. In San Antonio, he founded an art association for women painters, the Van Dyck club, which later became the San Antonio Arts League and later co-founded the Art Students League of Dallas. Onderdonk’s masterpiece, the 1903 painting Fall of the Alamo, was displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and is now held in the Texas State Archives. he is the father of Eleanor Onderdonk, a respected miniaturist, and Julian Onderdonk, who became known as the “bluebonnet painter.

Robert O. Preusser (1919-1992) A native of Houston, Preusser began art lessons at an early age and was exhibiting nationally and internationally by the time he was a teenager. After serving in the military, he received formal education at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He joined the faculty of the Museum of Fine Arts School of Art in Houston in 1947 and later the faculty of the Art Department at the University of Houston. He also co-founded the Contemporary Arts Association there.

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Rauschenberg’s works anticipated the pop art movement. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993 and the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1995. Rauschenberg began by studying pharmacy at the University of Texas and later studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Académie Julian in Paris.

Roger Winter (1934-) Born in Denison, Texas and a graduate of the University of Texas, Winter went on to earn an MFA from the University of Iowa and began to teach painting and drawing. His first solo show was in Dallas in 1963, the same year his work was added to the collection at the Dallas Museum of Art where he taught painting, as well as at  Southern Methodist University. He is the author of several books and studies with Everett Spruce and Loren Mozely.

Sallie Blythe Mummert (1888-1938) Born in Cisco, Mummert lived in Dallas and Paris, Texas before settling in Fort Worth. She studied at the Aunspaugh Art School in Dallas and also trained in Paris, France, and at the Art Institute of Chicago. Known for her landscapes of the countryside around Fort Worth, Mummert taught at Texas Christian University and wrote weekly art columns for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, her work  was exhibited at the Annual Texas Exhibition, Fort Worth (1912-20, 1922-37); the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, in New York (1917-19, 1925); and the Annual Exhibition of the State Fair of Texas, Dallas (1924).

Sallie Kyle (1866-1954) Born in Temple, Texas, Sallie Kyle studied at the Academie Colarossi in Paris, France in 1909 as well as in New York and Chicago. Kyle taught at Southern University in Georgetown, Texas (1908 -1911) at Baylor in Waco (1911-1920). She taught and painted in her native Temple, Texas in her final years, dying in 1954 at age 87.

Seymour Fogel (1911 – 1984) A native of New York City, Fogel’s artistic output included social realist art, abstract, expressionist and transcendental art. He worked in a variety of media including glass, plastics, sand and wax. In 1946, he moved to Austin where he became an integral part of the Texas Modernism movement. Fogel’s has been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Telfair Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Scott Gentling (1942-2011) Scott Gentling, along with his brother Stuart, are best known for their portfolio book Of Birds and Texas, which they self-published in 1986. The twin brothers also painted murals in Fort Worth’s Bass Hall. Scott Gentling painted the official portrait of George W Bush in Austin State Capitol. Scott Gentling is represented in the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Stephen Thomas Rascoe (1924-2008) Rascoe was born in Uvalde, Texas but spent most of his early years growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1964, Rascoe accepted a position as a fine art professor at the University of Texas at Arlington where he remained until his retirement in 1990.

Stuart Gentling (1942-2006) Stuart Gentling, along with his brother Scott, re best known for their portfolio book Of Birds and Texas, which they self-published in 1986. The twin brothers also painted murals in Fort Worth’s Bass Hall.

Thomas L. Lewis (1907-1978) A native of Bay City, Texas, Lewis was a painter of detailed Southwest landscapes and an art gallery owner in Taos, New Mexico. His paintings are in the Gilcrease Institute of American History and the University of Arizona Art Museum.

Thomas M. Stell, Jr. A Cuero, Texas native and a member of the Dallas Nine, Stell was a painter and teacher. Stell lived in New York City where he studied under George Luks and Charles W. Hawthorne at the Art Students League from 1923 to 1925. Stell also studied at the National Academy of Design, where he twice received an honorable mention in the prestigious Prix de Rome contest.

Troy Allen Lockard (1909-1990) A native of San Diego, Helen “Troy” Gwendolyn Allen picked up the name of Troy while attending Texas State College for Women.  In 1936 Allen’s modern art pieces were exhibited at Texas Centennial Exposition at Dallas in 1936. Allen’s Modernest interpretations of the southwest helped to cultivate an artistic world to thrive in West Texas.

Veronica Helfensteller (1910-1964) Veronica Helfensteller attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts before traveling abroad to study. Her subject matter favored animals and fantasy figures in exotic settings. Her studio was the site for weekly printmaking sessions for other Fort Worth Circle artist members. She exhibited in a large number of group exhibitions in California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Her work is held in the collections of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the Old Jail Art Center, Albany.

Vicky Cardwell Balcou Fort Worth native Vicky Cardwell Balcou grew up in the Reeder Children’s School of Theater and Design, where her mother, a classmate of Dickson Reeder, taught art. She enjoyed the creative influences of the artists of the Fort Worth Circle, including Flora Reeder, Dickson’s wife and creative partner, Olive Pemberton, Cynthia Brants, Bill Bomar, McKie Trotter, Reilly Nail, Jean Banks, Gwen Tandy and Earnest Chilton. At the Fort Worth Art Center, Vicky studied with Bror Utter, Dickson Reeder and David Brownlow. Vicky earned her B.A. of Fine Arts at U.T. in Austin. She also studied with Everett Spruce, Loren Mozley, William Lester, Charles Umlauf and Ralph White.

Ward Lockwood (1894-1963) A native of Kansas, Lockwood is known primarily as a Taos painter. Trained at the University of Kansas, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy Ranson in France. His work was included in exhibits at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Chicago Art Institute and the Whitney Biennial. He completed murals in post offices in Washington DC, Kansas and Texas. Lockwood served as Chair of the Department of Art t the University of Texas and later worked as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Lockwood painted in Cubist, Expressionist, Surrealist and Constructivist styles.

W.D. Smith (1907-1988) Professional photographer an amateur historian W.D. Smith was the owner of one of Fort Worth’s finest commercial photography studios. Clients included prominent local businesses, government entities, social clubs, and fraternal organizations. Smith was renowned for his talents in architectural photography.

Willard Watson (1921-1989) Nicknamed the “Texas Kid,” Watson was self-taught and used found objects in his sculptures and artwork.

William P “Bill” Bomar (1919-1991) A Fort Worth native, Bomar attended the Cranbrook Art Academy, and in 1942 he began studying with John Sloan in New York and later Hans Hoffman. In 1944 Bomar exhibited in a group show, “Six Texas Painters,” at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. Relocating to Taos, New Mexico, Bomar exhibited widely there as well as in Texas and New York. Bomar is represented in many private and public collections including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Williamson Gerald “Jerry” Bywaters (1906-1989) This Paris, Texas native was a seminal figure of 20th-century art Texas art. A faculty member for more than forty years at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Bywaters also served as director of the Dallas Museum of Art for more than twenty years. Bywaters studied at the Art Institute of Dallas, on his own in Mexico, and at an artists’ colony in Connecticut, before moving to New York to study at the Art Students League.

William Lester(1910-1991) Born in Graham, Texas, Lester studied at the Dallas Art Institute under Alexadre Hogue and Thomas Stell, Jr. An original member of the Dallas Nine, Lester helped form the Lone Star Printmakers in 1938. He taught at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Texas at Austin. He exhibited in many juried national exhibitions until 1952 when he concentrated on exhibiting almost exclusively in Texas.

Texas Artists Directory