Dwight Clay Holmes (Texas / California, 1900-1986), Texas bluebonnet landscape, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 1966, with artist's business card affixed to the verso

sight: 30 x 40 in., frame: 35 x 45 in.

Provenance: Property from a home in San Antonio, Texas; purchased from the artist by the present owner circa 1960s-'70s

Dwight Clay Holmes began his study of art early, in Galveston, Texas, under the instruction of artist William de Leftwich Dodge. He entered Texas Christian University in 1918, studying formal art technique under instructor Dura Brokaw Cockrell. Impressively, Holmes was able to pay his way through college from the sale of his artwork, and after graduating he began to travel across Texas looking for landscapes to depict. He was especially drawn to the beauty of the Davis Mountains and surrounding country in West Texas. He also painted landscapes in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico, also traveling abroad to Germany and Austria. However, he often returned home to paint in the parks of Fort Worth.