Center for the Arts show honors Southwest heritage

By Judith Pannebaker

Art Crawford of the Bandera County Center for the Arts, 714 Main Street, will present “Honoring our Southwest Heritage,” a gallery exhibit and sale Thursday through Sunday, May 21, 22, 23 and 24.

Admission is free and the gallery will be open from 11 am to 5 pm, Thursday to Saturday; and from noon to 4 pm, Sunday.

This exhibit gives locals and visitors an opportunity to view original digital fine art and master carvings - two emerging art forms than can now be found locally. Featured artists are Carole Boyd and “Woody” Woodward.

Known for her digital images of Native American subjects and Hill Country landscapes, Boyd will display her original digital paintings, as well as selections of pottery, Navajo rugs and jewelry from her art gallery.

Throughout her life, Boyd has been engaged in the arts - primarily music, dance and acting.

“Drawing was always something that I did for fun, and as a child
I especially liked to draw horses,” she explained.

An admitted multi-tasker, Boyd is an attorney by day, horse caretaker in early morning and evening hours, gallery owner and artist and ranch manager and rider on week-ends.

About five years ago, idling at her computer while on hold during a telephone call for another attorney, she found “Paint” program that is included on almost all computers. “I clicked it on, and got a blank screen with some utensils shown on the left and a color chart below,” Boyd recalled. “I clicked some more and found a pencil that I could draw with. So I drew a little picture. By the time the attorney finally returned to the line, I had discovered how to add ‘fill’ and paint the picture.” And her nascent career as a digital artist had begun.

Initially, Boyd created greeting cards, illustrations and line drawings. After opening her online gallery four years ago for Native American art and artifacts, Spirit Horse Gallery - www.spirithorsegallery.us - she included a small collection of landscape paintings suitable for note cards in southwestern themes. As her expertise increased, her paintings became more sophisticated and complex.

“Although it is somewhat limiting to paint on the computer in certain ways, in other ways, it is wonderful. Although it might seem easier to just put a brush straight to canvas, I think that there is a place in the fine arts field for digital art, and I’d like to help make that art form become universally accepted as ‘fine art’,” Boyd said. “I am inspired by the beauty of the Texas Hill Country.”

As an emerging digital fine artist, she has had her works exhibited and sold in juried competitions, both locally and throughout the United States. Boyd’s paintings are original digital art and not altered or manipulated photographs. All are hand painted, starting with a blank screen or canvas. Boyd’s works span categories from Surrealism to Realism, Impressionism to illustrations and even line drawings.

In the “Honoring Our Southwest Heritage” show, Master Carver Woody Woodward will exhibit his carved figures and animals depicting the Native American culture.

Of Cherokee and Choctaw heritage, the Kerrville resident started woodcarving professionally in 1988 after studying carving at War Eagle, Arkansas. He has worked with such notable carvers as John Burk, Rex Branson, Claud Bolton and Stu Martin.

Woodward’s realistic and expressive Native American carvings have won awards in North Carolina, Colorado and Texas. He is a member of the Texas Woodcarvers Guild and has attained a reputation as a Master Carver.

Additionally, Woodward serves as past president of the Hill Country Archeological Association, a Steward for the Texas Historical Commission serving Kerr and surrounding counties. He also teaches annual classes in archeology at the H-E-B Foundation camp.

In addition to the carvings prepared for the show, Woodward exhibits and sells his work at Texas, Etc., located in the Inn of the Hills in Kerrville, and accepts commissioned carvings.