Art in the Big Bend - a personal reflection
by Deborah Allison
The land is the first attraction. Bare rocks, spiky plants, drama. The hills are ancient and yet they are so new that they haven’t been worn down by the weather. I’ve heard many folks notice the similarity of the landscape to that of an ocean floor….just a bit drier.
The lighting is magical. It can be clear and stark, or soft and rosy. It is like the light you find in Tuscany or Provence. Mystical, elusive, almost touchable light. It invites you to try your hand at a painting. Even visitors who have never touched a paint brush feel led to give it a shot. Experienced painters find their hearts beating faster.
The sky is enormous. With few trees, low hills and no skyscrapers, there is not much blocking the view of the horizon. Often there are no clouds at all, just an incredibly clear blue. Then quickly puffy clouds appear that can change to atomic looking thunderheads. Sunrises and sunsets of impossible colors and the amazing starlit night skies treat us every day.
So, being a visual artist, I was immediately pulled into the Big Bend area by what my eyes beheld. We arrived in the area in 2002 and I dreamed of endless days painting in the beautiful outdoors. Vistas, long thin paintings of the distant horizons, it all danced in my head like Christmas sugarplums.
I tried. It was April and I found out quickly that even though the temperatures were perfect and the skies were clear, the spring winds challenged my easel. We found some heavy rocks to anchor the easel legs and keep it from sailing away. But I still ended up chasing a tipped canvas and even today there is some local texture (dirt) in the sky (oil paint).
But it is worth the challenges. Amazing long views, clear colorful shadows and eye squinting brightness. Most of the time we don’t have viridian greens, but there is a variety of more subtle colors in the flora. The sage greens of the cenizo and even the bright yellow green of the occasional cottonwoods. The twisted barbed wire appearance of the ocotillo and the spiky grace of the yucca add a staccato beat to the long flatness between the mountain ranges. The rocks of the Davis Mountains have shades of red not found in the northeast and the bluish tint of the hills in the evening is a wonderful balance to the vivid orange of the sky as twilight approaches.
History
Going beyond the sheer paintability of the area, there is history. Not just the forts, the cowboy stories and the adobe buildings (all tremendous subjects in themselves), but there have been artists in this area since the indigenous people painted and carved on the rock walls. Areas in the Seminole Canyon State Park have incredible color figures painted possibly about 7000 years ago.
A few thousand years later, the local teacher’s college had a very successful and well-considered art colony taught by many of Texas’ more famous artists such as Xavier Gonzalez and Julius Woeltz. This program attracted painters to the area each summer to learn contemporary techniques in the inspirational region of the high desert. This program ran from 1932 to 1950, but the influence lingers in the current Art Department of the Sul Ross State University in Alpine.
The forties also brought influences of World War II to the area. At Fort D.A. Russell in Marfa, German prisoners of war were housed in barracks where they spent their time painting murals on the adobe walls. The International Women’s Foundation has worked to restore and preserve these landscape murals. Open to the public, these works convey the sense of isolation these men felt here in the Chihuahuan desert. But they also show a fascination for the unfamiliar hills and plants of the area.
In this region that seems so remote I was amazed at the depth of Art history. There is something so personal here that makes each visitor feel special and individual, like they are the first to discover its magic. Yet I was touched by the ancients and spirits past that found expression through art in the Big Bend.
Current events & activities
It is still working its magic. Contemporary Minimalist artist Donald Judd was seduced by the wide-open spaces, buying and converting buildings in Marfa and creating art installations in the late 1980’s. These buildings maintained by the Judd Foundation and the buildings and art of the Chinati Foundation have become a mecca for the major art world, attracting visitors and artists from the art centers of New York, L.A., Germany and beyond. There is mystery in the hanger exhibit of aluminum boxes with the sparse land just outside the huge windows. Today, artists are lining up to be a part of the Chinati resident program, beguiled and inspired.
Alpine has an annual event that is totally devoted to art. The Gallery Night/ArtWalk happens the weekend before Thanksgiving and attracts art lovers from all of Texas and beyond. This was above and beyond my expectations.
I was drawn into the vortex that some say exist here. The art history of the area is rich and varied and I decided to stick around and see if the future was as colorful. I painted some, exhibited some and explored a lot. I found a house crying out for major renovations and decided to open a gallery. Was it a spell? Absolutely. A generally reasonable person was motivated to jump into a reconstruction project with no experience but lots of crazy enthusiasm. Perhaps, with the higher altitude, the lack of oxygen was influential.
The support of the people in the area was nothing less than miraculous, ranging from articles by the newspaper about a traveling artist and invitations to show my work at local businesses to volunteers who helped break up concrete, haul trash and feed other helpers. It really was amazing. Our gallery opened 3 (three!) months later.
Since then, even more galleries have opened in Alpine, Marfa, Ft. Davis and Marathon. The artists who had already made this area their home welcomed the newcomers and the Big Bend Arts Council was formed. The Big Bend Gallery & Artists Guide was created as a listing of area artists and display venues. Just this year, it was announced that Alpine would have a Texas state designated cultural center. Sul Ross University still has a terrific Fine Arts program and the Museum of the Big Bend sponsors adult art classes for the region.
Art is thriving in the Big Bend. The magic is here and it seems that the area will continue to attract the creative spirits. We welcome you to take part in the magic.
Deborah Allison lives in a 5th wheel RV with her husband Wayne Cline and famous art-loving cat “Picatso”. Most days, she is at her studio in Alpine, painting portraits, and dreaming of the hundreds of landscape paintings left to paint. www.deborahallison.blogspot.com
The land is the first attraction. Bare rocks, spiky plants, drama. The hills are ancient and yet they are so new that they haven’t been worn down by the weather. I’ve heard many folks notice the similarity of the landscape to that of an ocean floor….just a bit drier.
The lighting is magical. It can be clear and stark, or soft and rosy. It is like the light you find in Tuscany or Provence. Mystical, elusive, almost touchable light. It invites you to try your hand at a painting. Even visitors who have never touched a paint brush feel led to give it a shot. Experienced painters find their hearts beating faster.
The sky is enormous. With few trees, low hills and no skyscrapers, there is not much blocking the view of the horizon. Often there are no clouds at all, just an incredibly clear blue. Then quickly puffy clouds appear that can change to atomic looking thunderheads. Sunrises and sunsets of impossible colors and the amazing starlit night skies treat us every day.
So, being a visual artist, I was immediately pulled into the Big Bend area by what my eyes beheld. We arrived in the area in 2002 and I dreamed of endless days painting in the beautiful outdoors. Vistas, long thin paintings of the distant horizons, it all danced in my head like Christmas sugarplums.
I tried. It was April and I found out quickly that even though the temperatures were perfect and the skies were clear, the spring winds challenged my easel. We found some heavy rocks to anchor the easel legs and keep it from sailing away. But I still ended up chasing a tipped canvas and even today there is some local texture (dirt) in the sky (oil paint).
But it is worth the challenges. Amazing long views, clear colorful shadows and eye squinting brightness. Most of the time we don’t have viridian greens, but there is a variety of more subtle colors in the flora. The sage greens of the cenizo and even the bright yellow green of the occasional cottonwoods. The twisted barbed wire appearance of the ocotillo and the spiky grace of the yucca add a staccato beat to the long flatness between the mountain ranges. The rocks of the Davis Mountains have shades of red not found in the northeast and the bluish tint of the hills in the evening is a wonderful balance to the vivid orange of the sky as twilight approaches.
History
Going beyond the sheer paintability of the area, there is history. Not just the forts, the cowboy stories and the adobe buildings (all tremendous subjects in themselves), but there have been artists in this area since the indigenous people painted and carved on the rock walls. Areas in the Seminole Canyon State Park have incredible color figures painted possibly about 7000 years ago.
A few thousand years later, the local teacher’s college had a very successful and well-considered art colony taught by many of Texas’ more famous artists such as Xavier Gonzalez and Julius Woeltz. This program attracted painters to the area each summer to learn contemporary techniques in the inspirational region of the high desert. This program ran from 1932 to 1950, but the influence lingers in the current Art Department of the Sul Ross State University in Alpine.
The forties also brought influences of World War II to the area. At Fort D.A. Russell in Marfa, German prisoners of war were housed in barracks where they spent their time painting murals on the adobe walls. The International Women’s Foundation has worked to restore and preserve these landscape murals. Open to the public, these works convey the sense of isolation these men felt here in the Chihuahuan desert. But they also show a fascination for the unfamiliar hills and plants of the area.
In this region that seems so remote I was amazed at the depth of Art history. There is something so personal here that makes each visitor feel special and individual, like they are the first to discover its magic. Yet I was touched by the ancients and spirits past that found expression through art in the Big Bend.
Current events & activities
It is still working its magic. Contemporary Minimalist artist Donald Judd was seduced by the wide-open spaces, buying and converting buildings in Marfa and creating art installations in the late 1980’s. These buildings maintained by the Judd Foundation and the buildings and art of the Chinati Foundation have become a mecca for the major art world, attracting visitors and artists from the art centers of New York, L.A., Germany and beyond. There is mystery in the hanger exhibit of aluminum boxes with the sparse land just outside the huge windows. Today, artists are lining up to be a part of the Chinati resident program, beguiled and inspired.
Alpine has an annual event that is totally devoted to art. The Gallery Night/ArtWalk happens the weekend before Thanksgiving and attracts art lovers from all of Texas and beyond. This was above and beyond my expectations.
I was drawn into the vortex that some say exist here. The art history of the area is rich and varied and I decided to stick around and see if the future was as colorful. I painted some, exhibited some and explored a lot. I found a house crying out for major renovations and decided to open a gallery. Was it a spell? Absolutely. A generally reasonable person was motivated to jump into a reconstruction project with no experience but lots of crazy enthusiasm. Perhaps, with the higher altitude, the lack of oxygen was influential.
The support of the people in the area was nothing less than miraculous, ranging from articles by the newspaper about a traveling artist and invitations to show my work at local businesses to volunteers who helped break up concrete, haul trash and feed other helpers. It really was amazing. Our gallery opened 3 (three!) months later.
Since then, even more galleries have opened in Alpine, Marfa, Ft. Davis and Marathon. The artists who had already made this area their home welcomed the newcomers and the Big Bend Arts Council was formed. The Big Bend Gallery & Artists Guide was created as a listing of area artists and display venues. Just this year, it was announced that Alpine would have a Texas state designated cultural center. Sul Ross University still has a terrific Fine Arts program and the Museum of the Big Bend sponsors adult art classes for the region.
Art is thriving in the Big Bend. The magic is here and it seems that the area will continue to attract the creative spirits. We welcome you to take part in the magic.
Deborah Allison lives in a 5th wheel RV with her husband Wayne Cline and famous art-loving cat “Picatso”. Most days, she is at her studio in Alpine, painting portraits, and dreaming of the hundreds of landscape paintings left to paint. www.deborahallison.blogspot.com