1425 N. Hwy 67 Cedar Hill TX, 75104 Ph: 972-293-1117
To further inquire about artwork please contact us at 972-293-1117 or email us at info_veartgallery.com
Born and raised in north-central Texas, George Hallmark was an architectural designer and commercial artist before turning to easel painting. Voted the official Texas State Artist in 1988, his work hangs in many prestigious private and corporate collections, including those of Texas Instruments, the Medical Heritage Collection, the Texas Capitol, MBNA, and the Capitol in Washington, D.C. He is an honorary lifetime member of the New Mexico Military Institute Alumni Association.
Hallmark’s work has been featured in Art of the West, Southwest Art, and U.S. Art magazines. He is an annual participant in the Prix de West Exhibition and Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. The artist also participates in the Eiteljorg Museum’s Quest for the West show in Indianapolis.
Hallmark has come full circle to his architectural roots. His love of the subject is prominent in his unique, painterly style in the delineation of stucco walls, tile roofs, and long shadows in his beautiful works. He is currently completing new paintings from recent trips to Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy.
The artist’s originals are represented by Trailside Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona, Whistle Pik Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas, as well as Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work is reproduced by Somerset Fine Art in Houston, Texas.
George and his wife, Lisa, reside in a picturesque home with a studio overlooking the Bosque River Valley in Bosque County, Texas.
“The longer I paint, the more I enjoy this wonderful blessing of creation. The good Lord gave me this incredible desire to be an artist; the rest has been just plain, hard work.”
- George Hallmark
Bill Anton was born in Chicago in 1957 and later moved to Prescott, Arizona. He graduated from Northern Arizona University. Later, after committing to painting full-time, he studied under Michael Lynch and Ned Jacob, who encouraged him to paint from life. “While the nature of my work necessitates much studio time, more and more of my painting is done outside.”
Anton’s work has been published in Southwest Art, Architectural Digest, Art of the West, Equine Images, Western Horseman and Art-Talk. Corporate collections that include his work are Sears, Dupont, State Farm Insurance, Bank of America, Hewlett Packard, and Trust Company of the West. His award winning work has been displayed at the Prix de West at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Masters of the American West at The Autry Museum, The National Center for American Western Art, the Old West Museum, and The National Museum of Wildlife Art. In addition, his work is in the permanent collection of the prestigious Gilcrease Museum.
“I do not see myself as a biographer of the cowboy. I know some artists feel they are recording history on the ranches as life there is today, but the focus of my work has always been mood and passion. If I’m recording anything, I’m recording how I feel about the west. I want the viewer to feel the drama of atmosphere and the mystery of a western night. I want the volume and portent of a cloud to be evident in the calligraphy of a brushstroke. The pack of muscle below a horse’s shoulder should be energized by a gestural application of paint.
“You see, I love to paint. And I love the American west. I was born in Chicago, but the Sierra Nevada, Sangre de Cristo, Sawatch and a hundred other ranges of our rocky mountains were the only “Big Shoulders” I was ever interested in. Walking thunderstorms, sunstruck cedars, rimrock and artfully abstract water patterns charge the landscape with impossible beauty.
“Amidst this nobility is its caretaker: the rancher. With the natural ease of generations bred to the saddle, he is a powerful image further ennobled by a fine horse. An artist under the spell of the west has the privilege of marshalling the virtues of landscape, figure andequine painting into one supremely paintable subject: the American cowboy.”
- Bill Anton
Andy Thomas is not only an immensely talented painter, but also a storyteller with the images he creates. His subject matter consists of a variety of images from historical events to intimate moments of everyday life. The artist’s desire to create is funneled into the area of painting realism that ranges from very loose to very tight. Thomas’s medium is primarily oil, but he also works in watercolor, pen and ink, charcoal, pencil, and ink wash. He is also a very accomplished sculptor.
Primarily self-taught, Thomas began his professional art career in 1991 after sixteen years with a major advertising agency. In his studio, the artist creates his unique paintings that tell their “stories.” Thomas says, “I never consciously ponder elements of design or principals of design…I rely on my sketches to refine a value scheme as a starting point. They also help me visualize the completed painting and consider light, painting technique, subject or object importance, and other considerations. The viewer’s eye-path is a big influence on the composition at this point and all through the painting process.” Thomas’s style has been compared to Russell and Remington, and artist says he also has been influenced by Howard Pyle, Richard Schmid, Norman Rockwell, and others.
Many of Thomas’s historical images have been used in books and as book covers, and his various paintings also have been featured in numerous magazines. The artist’s original works are in many private and corporate collections and also in the permanent collections of museums around the country.
Thomas exhibits in several shows annually, the most recent being the 2006 C. M. Russell Art Auction where he sold eight original paintings. The artist also enjoys judging art shows and teaching children and adult painting classes. He is a talented writer and published a book containing over 100 color images of his work, along with stories written by him.
The artist is a member of the famed Salmagundi Club in New York, The Portrait Society of America, and other art organizations. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Missouri Southern State University with a BS in Marketing Management.
G.Harvey and his images have influenced a worldwide enthusiasm and demand for contemporary American art for a generation. Few artists have intrigued and captivated art collectors as widely as the celebrated painter, G. Harvey. During his storied career, G. Harvey has painted turn-of-the-century America as no other artist. His scenes are warm, thoughtful portraits of our country’s bustling cities in a more genteel era and outstanding Western sagas of working cowhands at home in rugged landscapes.
Gerald Harvey Jones, known to his patrons and peers as G. Harvey, grew up in the rugged hills in Central Texas where herds of longhorn cattle were driven along the dusty trails. This background has been the inspiration for the artist’s commitment to portraying the spirit of America. Through his art, our country’s history lives. Harvey restores all those memories, sights, sounds, and emotions. With his ability to capture the drama, light, and feeling of a moment, the artist brings the heart of his painting to the viewer.
G. Harvey is not only an extraordinary painter, but an accomplished sculptor. His original works and bronze sculptures are in the collections of major corporations, prestigious museums, American presidents, governors, foreign leaders, and captains of industry. The artist has been the recipient of innumerable awards and the subject of four books. Harvey has been honored with one-man shows at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives in Washington, D. C.
The artist’s original paintings are represented in major galleries. His annual, one-man shows are consistent sell-outs where Harvey collectors come from all around the country to view and compete to own an outstanding work by the artist.
G. Harvey lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country with his wife, Pat, where they enjoy living near their children and grandchildren. A studio adjacent to his home is a sanctuary for creating the paintings that his legions of devoted collectors eagerly anticipate with each new work.
G. Harvey’s work reminds us that the world has changed very much and very little; country lanes and city streets are still romantic. It is, after all, from living in the present that the artist draws inspiration for the past.
Whether painting the Native Americans in a dramatic, picturesque setting, or the American cowboy in the dusty cattle-working pens, Martin Grelle captures the spirit, beauty, and vastness of the West in his historically-accurate, compelling images. Grelle studies diligently to portray the diverse cultures of the American West accurately and with sensitivity. His knowledge of the cowboy’s way of life, gained from his time spent horseback on ranches during the annual Cowboy Artists of America’s (CAA) trail ride, as well as the time spent with local ranchers and friends, is evident in his contemporary cowboy paintings. The many hours spent in museums, at historical re-enactments, in visiting with experts on Native American culture, and reading from his extensive library, have helped him to bring his vision of the Plains Indian culture to life on canvas.
Grelle was born when his family lived on a small farm a few miles from the small, Central Texas town of Clifton, which he still calls home today. This beautiful and historic area has become a mecca for artists, including many of Grelle’s close friends. They all enjoy getting together to “talk art”, critique each other’s work, and exchange ideas. Many of them, including Grelle, teach annual workshops through a local art facility known as the Bosque Conservatory, which has begun to have a national presence. Grelle treasures this feeling of community and the opportunities he is afforded living in such a creative environment.
The artist’s talents were evident as a child and he began painting at an early age. Luckily for the budding painter, acclaimed Western artists James Boren and Melvin Warren had settled in the same area while he was in school. With excellent guidance from James Boren, a full-time artist was born in his early twenties. Since then, Grelle has studied and traveled widely to seek subject matter for his work. Working primarily in oils on canvas, the artist’s figures and landscape become one in a painterly style rich in vibrant color and narrative.
For more than 30 years Grelle has made a career of his art, and has won awards of both regional and national importance. In 1995, he was elected to the Cowboy Artists of America, and he is one of the younger active members. He is currently serving his second term on the board of directors for that organization, and participates in the Annual CAA Exhibition and Sale at the Phoenix Art Museum each October. Grelle won the CAA People’s Choice Award in 2002, for his painting Monarchs of the North, and the Ray Swanson Memorial Award in 2008, for his painting Newlyweds. He has also been privileged to participate in other major juried shows across the United States. Included in that list are the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, which he has participated in each year since 1995, the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition & Sale at the Autry National Center, and the inaugural Quest for the West Exhibition & Sale at the Eiteljorg Museum. Awards of merit include the Prix de West Purchase Award, which he won in 2002 for his painting Teller of Tales, and again in 2005, for his painting Two Coups, making him one of only 6 artists to have won the top award twice. Grelle has also won twice the Nona Jean Hulsey Ramsey Buyer’s Choice Award at Prix de West, first in 2004 with Signs Along the Snake, and again in 2006, for Dust in the Distance. The artist is represented by Overland Gallery of Fine Art, in Scottsdale, Arizona, where a one-man show is held for Grelle each March. The 2008 show marked Grelle’s 20th anniversary one-man show with the gallery.
The artist has been profiled in a number of publications, including the magazines Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, Persimmon Hill, American Cowboy, Western Horseman, Wild West, and InformArt. His work has also been showcased on the covers of many of these publications.
Grelle says humbly, “I thank God for the ability and the opportunities He has given me, and I hope I can continue to grow and learn more with each finished painting. I am honored by everyone who collects my work, and I will always strive to create artwork worthy of their attention, and their investment.”
BOB WYGANT (1927 – 2008)
Bob Wygant held a special place in Texas and in the Western heritage he painted throughout his career. A quiet man of immense talent, his paintings came from his heart as much as from his brush. Breath-taking in his detailed and realistic approach, his images make time stand still…creating memories that offer the viewer a glimpse into a rich past that is relived through the artist’s paintings. Wygant had said, “I am interested in establishing a mood in my paintings and not a meaning. It is the viewer who brings the meaning to the work.” From the romantic cowboys to the rocky landscape and picturesque rivers to the pleasures of rural life, Wygant’s paintings brought the American West to life to be enjoyed and treasured for generations.
After majoring in art at the University of Texas in Austin, he returned home to Houston to establish his career. Wygant’s first success was in commissions by some of the major oil companies in Texas. For several years, the artist worked quietly at home painting for his many clients. His images are in hundreds of homes throughout Texas and are treasured by every owner. Wygant’s growing reputation resulted in the University of Houston offering him a teaching position, where he inspired multitudes of students for 16 years. The artist also worked with the internationally-famous Houston Livestock Show in judging students’ art and awarding scholarships…a way to give something back to the community.
Bob Wygant’s magical use of acrylics earned him a reputation as a master of this medium. His paintings are vibrant, colorful scenes that allow the viewer to participate in the mood and emotion emanating from his subjects. He was always driven to relay his love of the Western landscape and the many memories of the quiet, rural life through his paint brush.
Wygant passed away in 2008 after living for many years with his wife, Alla, in a small community north of Houston. He enjoyed a relaxed, rural life among the simple pleasures that he always loved to paint. Wygant, the man, and his outstanding talent will always be held in high esteem by the Western art world, which he so greatly influenced in his own, quiet way.
Bob Wygant was such a revered figure with such a unique style in his genre that every painting he created is in a private or corporate collection and unavailable to the public.
As one of today’s finest and most recognized photorealist painters, Rod Chase has earned the highest respect of his peers and the admiration of legions of collectors. Each painting from the artist’s easel is a masterpiece created from extensive research and numerous photographs of each of his subjects. This technique, along with the aid of historical photographs, results in a timeless quality in each of Chase’s works.
In his quest for mystique, accuracy, and a true sense of history, Chase does extensive research. His travels have led him from New York and Washington, D.C. to Colorado and California and finally to Italy in a never-ending search to obtain materials and photography for new paintings. The talented artist says, "Being a photorealist, I am dependent on finding accurate reference material for each painting.” Chase works with acrylics on canvas, spending hundreds of hours on each painting with the ultimate goal of presenting a fresh, unique, and elegant approach to familiar subjects. The detail in each painting is remarkable, but the mood each is equally impressive.
Chase is acknowledged as a master of breathtaking scenes depicting our country’s natural and historical treasures. He has painted images of such famous landmarks as The White House, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court building to name a few. As a naturalized citizen, he felt honored as well as professionally challenged to paint these subjects.
Chase also paints magnificent foreign landscapes. His travels in Italy inspired him to paint St. Peter’s Basilica and the romantic canals of Venice. The artist’s outstanding talent in his use of light is evident in "The Glory of San Pietro” and "The Mists of Morning.” Without traveling to these world-famous locales, the viewer is able to feel as if the scene is unfolding before them in person.
Rising early to photograph the dramatic light of sunrise or awaiting the soft, moody glow of sunset, Chase captures the emotion and direction in which he will paint his subject. The artist will continue to create elegant, awe-inspiring scenes by combining antique and modern photographs with just the right touch of artistic license. Chase, a native of Canada, and his wife live with their five children in the Texas Hill Country. In 1999, he became a United States citizen.
Born in 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, where he now lives with his wife Jennifer, and their young children, Dan's interest in art emerged as a teenager. Studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois and his voracious appetite for museums and the modern masters such as John Singer Sargent, Alphonse Mucha, Nicolai Fechin, Joaquin Sorolla, Carl von Marr as well as a host of other French and American impressionists have inspired him. Dan has a particular interest and appreciation for modern Russian art and the sumptuous canvases of the painters Nicolai Fechin, Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin. As Dan says, their paintings are "completely loose yet deliberate and faithful, not at all flashy." Indeed, the powerful and evocative beauty of Gerhartz's paintings are also due in large measure to looseness, honesty and faithfulness of his style. Dan's paintings embrace a range of subjects, most prominently the female figure in either a pastoral setting or an intimate interior. He is at his best with subjects from everyday life, genre subjects, sacred-idyllic landscapes or figures in quiet repose, meditation or contemplative isolation. His mastery of the female figure, the clothed figure especially, is brilliant. He has drawn inspiration from the very old tradition of romanticism and symbolism. His absolutely lavish surfaces, color and lighting are in harmony with his expressionistic brushstroke, application and modeling of light and shade. His paintings are sensitive yet evocative creations, which dramatize his bold and ambitious technique. He is at his very best when he allows himself to explore the surface in a free and painterly manner, while retaining his sense of other worldliness. His subjects evoke a timelessness and idealism, yet for the most part Dan has drawn upon his home and community in Wisconsin, including family and friends. His sense of intimacy and honesty with regard to his subjests are a direct result of his closeness and proximity to them. A projection of tranquillity, repose and rich introspection result from his knowledge of the content of his art. In Gerhartz's pictures the ordinary or commonplace is transformed into a higher reality and consequently a sense of greater importance. Emotions are a vital part of his express design, while his mastery of anatomy, the human form and complex surfaces combine to make his canvases very powerful visual experiences. About his work Dan has said, "My desire as an artist is that the images I paint would point to the Creator, and not to me, the conveyor. J.S. Bach said it well as he signed his work, 'Soli Deo Gloria,' To God alone be the glory."
J. Brooks Joyner
My life experience and pleasures are translated through my work as an artist and photographer. I have been compelled by the innate power of the horse and its elegant beauty since childhood, striving to capture the raw energy and motion as well as the unique emotional connection between not only man and beast, but man and earth.I am attracted to expressive and experimental styles of working which not only generate some surprises, but also afford a sense of personal freedom.Sometimes a viewer will look twice at an image and not immediately be certain what the subject is exactly, but will definitely experience a positive feeling. I’ve had several people respond to pieces in this collection in a pure emotional fashion without even acknowledging the subject matter.Shooting photos digitally has proven to be invaluable in capturing rare moments of raw, textured forcefulness. Continuing with a vision, I work digitally to bring out the drama in a partial, painterly manner hoping to invoke feelings of an almost musical sense of connectedness.20 years of experience also include a strong background in graphic design, traditional art, artdirection, and four years of teaching at the Art Institute in Denver.
Karen Kelly’s creative photography is presented in the contemporary style of Somerset Décor offerings. Each image is giclée printed with a solid black border on fine art canvas and stretched around 2 inch deep and solid wood bars. These museum quality matte canvas offerings are coated with a water-based semi-gloss coating to provide protection from ultra violet rays, dust, light moisture, and handling. They are designed to hang or stand without framing.
Laurie Bender's award-winning paintings...
not so much what places look like, but what they feel like.
The often asked question of Laurie Bender's award-winning paintings is "What medium are these?" The correct answer is, of course, "watercolor." Ms. Bender's works defy the traditional impression of watercolors as pale, hesitant, and washed-out. She paints vibrant landscapes--capturing not so much what places look like, but what they feel like--with bold, decisive strokes and luminous saturated color.
As an undergraduate and graduate student in Fine Arts at UCLA, Ms. Bender was exposed to training in a variety of mediums. Her love of watercolor began a decade ago when she enrolled in a "plein air" painting course in the Santa Monica mountains. Since that time, she has journeyed far afield, both artistically and geographically. Her widely-collected watercolors capture the beauty and wonder of the landscapes she visits, from the desert Southwest to New England's autumn vistas.
As a colorist, Ms. Bender pushes watercolor beyond traditional boundaries. Her colors, vivid and radiant with every part of the spectrum, are part of the artist's journey toward self-discovery. This unique perception of color is an expression of her imagination. It elicits excitement: a new way of looking at life (art). It gives the viewer permission to step away from collective thought (the way we are conditioned to see things--grass is green, rocks are gray...) into an exhilarating freedom to see what is really there. Wow! We are not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy, for sure, or Alice in some wonderland. We are in a Laurie Bender watercolor. Unreal and yet.. .we would all like to be there.
Kay M. Wyne is a mid-career artist who is passionate about painting. Kay has lived in the community of Lake Highlands in Dallas,
Texas for over thirty years. Her interest in art has led her to develop her own distinctive style of imagery found in her art. The
subject matter for Kay’s paintings varies, as she finds inspiration from the landscape, architectural elements, cows, roosters,
horses and birds nests. She also finds the most ordinary objects of daily life interesting subjects to paint. Vibrant colors and
loose brushstroke movements are characteristics found in her paintings. The use of the palette knife and multiple layers of paint
create depth and texture on the canvas, creating a painterly, impressionistic feel.
As a full time artist, Kay paints in the Art Studio she shares with six other artists, and also paints in plein air. The paintings on
canvas may be appealing to the eye, not necessarily recreating realistic images, but images reflecting Kay’s own creative, unpredictable
perspective. Oil paintings on canvas or board are her painterly visions, capturing a moment in time or a mood for
the viewer to admire. The subject matter for Kay’s contemporary art varies, and includes six bodies of work that she is working
on concurrently: “Abstract Aspens”, “Contemporary Cows”, “Dragonfly Dreams”, “Horizon Series”, Nest Series”, and “Spirit of
the Horse”.
Kay holds a Bachelors Degree in Art Education from Western Illinois University, and has owned and operated a custom framing
business for two decades. She recently sold that business, allowing her to devote more time to her art. Kay resides in Dallas
with her husband, John. Together, they have two grown children and one son-in-law, all currently living in Dallas. Kay can be
contacted at 214-532-0325 or kay_kwyne.com if you would like to inquire about purchasing or commissioning a piece of art.
You can also visit her blog at http://kaywyne.blogspot.com, or her website at www.kwyne.com.
Noteworthy Collections and Achievements:
• Taste of the NFL commission for twenty-year anniversary at Super Bowl XLV.
Original art, “Cheers to Twenty Years (February 2011)
• Omni Hotel Convention Center/Dallas: Original art for more than 300 suites and rooms (July 2010 – October 2011)
• Art Consultant for Omni Hotel Convention Center for local artist to produce mixed media pieces for King and Queen Rooms
(February 2011 – October 2011)
