Manuel Garza (Texas, b. 1940), bluebonnet landscape, 1981, oil on canvas

sight: 24 x 36 in., frame: 32.5 x 44.5 in.

Provenance: Personally commissioned from the artist; thence in a Bertram, Texas collection

Growing up in Central Texas, Manuel Garza is well acquainted with Texas hill country scenery. Garza recreates this scenery to perfection, capturing in oil the thick heat, bold sunlight, and cool shade of the state. Garza's work often features not only wildflowers, but quail, pheasant, turkeys, deer, and a host of domestic birds. "I am a landscape artist", he says, "but wildlife is part of that landscape. It adds life." Garza is largely self-taught, although he did attend the Texas School of Fine Arts and studied under Porfirio Salinas and Robert Wood, and cites them as major influences on his style. Manuel Garza's paintings are included in the collection of Lyndon B. Johnson, John Connally, Ben Barnes, and many others throughout the United States.