Beeville, TX
Beeville Art Museum, September 11-December 15
Jeri Salter, Last Light on Winter Trees, pastel, 24 x 36.
This story was featured in the October 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
Few sights are more striking to Jeri Salter than the shifting morning and evening light upon a sprawling Texas landscape. That passion, in fact, inspired the theme for her solo show at the Beeville Art Museum in Beeville, TX, where nearly 50 pastel paintings by Salter are on view through mid-December. Entitled Fleeting Light: First and Last Light Over the Texas Landscape, the exhibition features many works that have never been on view before, including about a dozen new paintings and works on loan from private collections. The museum hosts an artist’s reception on Saturday, October 14, from noon to 2 p.m.
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- Jeri Salter, Sale or Rent, pastel, 12 x 20.
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- Jeri Salter, Fading Fog, pastel, 17 x 30.
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- Jeri Salter, Fire in the Sky, pastel, 22 x 32.
Numerous paintings in the show are redolent of the rural landscapes once documented by early 20th-century Texas artist Frank Reaugh. A few years ago, Salter visited a series of places the famed pastelist himself had painted during his lifetime, from Big Bend country to the Panhandle, and then she painted the sites through a contemporary lens, in her own impressionistic style. The project led to a solo show at William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art in Houston in 2015.
Those familiar with the gallery may recognize Salter as one of its contemporary Texas regionalists. The Richmond, VA, native has resided in the Lone Star State for her entire adult life, and from the start, she was transfixed by its immense skies, wide-open spaces, and the feelings of freedom it evoked. “More and more of my paintings are 15 by 30 inches because it gives me a sense of that openness,” says Salter.
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- Jeri Salter, In Case of Fire, pastel, 12 x 25.
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- Jeri Salter, Road to Boquillas, pastel, 15 x 30.
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- Jeri Salter, Last Light on Winter Trees, pastel, 24 x 36.
A handful of Salter’s new paintings feature Beeville-area ranches that she visited this past year. Others depict pastoral fields and quiet roads disappearing into the horizon. Salter nearly always has a camera on hand to capture ephemeral displays of light upon these scenes. LAST LIGHT ON WINTER TREES, for example, evolved from a set of photographs she snapped during a routine walk with her dogs near her home in central Texas in 2012. The area has since been leveled and developed, and Salter wistfully returns to those photographs from time to time. “I like the idea of finding beauty—something wonderful—in everyday moments,” she says. —Kim Agricola
contact information
361.358.8615
www.bamtexas.org
This story was featured in the October 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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