Chandor Gardens Foundation Inc. is pleased to present a screening of the feature-length documentary (52 minutes) film Frank Reaugh: Pastel Poet of the Texas Plains, on November 19, 2022 at 7:00 pm in the Great Room at Chandor Gardens, Weatherford, TX, has well as having the film’s producer Marla Fields on hand to provide remarks and a Q&A session following the screening.
Artist Frank Reaugh (pronounced “Ray”) lived and worked in Dallas through the first half of the 20th Century. Working in the vein of American Impressionism, his pictures of longhorn steers roaming the landscape helped to define Texas. Reaugh was a prolific and influential artist who produced over seven thousand works, primarily small plein air sketches of Texas Longhorns in open prairie settings. Reaugh sketched scenes while riding with cattlemen during the height of Texas’s historic roundups, and he led annual sketch trips to some of Texas’s most spectacular and remote locations. He has been referred to as "The Dean of Texas Painters” and as “The Longhorn Leonardo”.
To those who have a keen interest in Chandor Gardens and the works of Douglas Chandor. There is a Douglas Chandor connection to Frank Reaugh, as Douglas painted Reaugh’s portrait in 1941. The portrait features Reaugh with brush and palette in hand, eyeing the viewer with a piercing yet non-threatening gaze...he is in the midst of painting. Chandor's astounding skill at capturing a fellow artist capturing him draws the viewer right into the middle of this encounter, a duel of sorts. The intensity of Reaugh's stare is one of raw honesty, which enlightens the viewer to the real task of both artists: to look deeply and portray the true being of their subjects. Douglas Chandor signed the bottom left corner of the portrait, inscribing it: "CHANDOR 1941 PICTOR PICTORI." (Roughly translates to "painter painted" or "painter painting.") Frank Reaugh signed the bottom right corner with "Giving the story of the Longhorn F. Reaugh." A print of this portrait hangs in the Great Room at Chandor Gardens.
Frank Reaugh (1860-1945) was born in Illinois and moved with his family to Texas when he was around sixteen years old. As a young man, he studied art by copying images from anatomy and art books; but became specifically interested in longhorns when he rode the cattle drives. By the late-1880s, he was able to study art in Europe, taking interest in the works in the Louvre that were pastels. He returned to Texas and began teaching and exhibiting his own work in various shows, including those at the Chicago and St. Louis World’s Fairs. He opened an art studio and school in Dallas and then Oak Cliff. Some of his students were part of the well-known Dallas Nine (a group of young artists in the 1930s that gained notoriety for turning away from European trends and looking to the land and people of the Southwest for inspiration.). He also took an integral part in the creation of the Dallas Art Society, and their funding of the Dallas Museum of Art.
This film is narrated by native Texan Michael Martin Murphey and produced and directed by Texas filmmaker Marla Fields, Frank Reaugh: Pastel Poet of the Texas Plains is truly a homegrown production. Texas musicians Curtis Peoples, Adam Oliver, Doug Smith, and Michael Martin Murphey all added their talents to this Texas tale. Director of photography John Dempsey, and Editor Chuck Venable round out the list of Texans that also played a part in this story of high art on the open plains. In this feature-length documentary (52 minutes), it is anticipated that a new audience of Texans and Americans alike will discover the remarkable contributions of Texas and American artist, inventor, naturalist, and educator, Frank Reaugh.
Tickets are $30 - available online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/frank-reaugh-pastel-poet-of-the-texas-plains-tickets-444935272377
Wine/beer and a light snack included.
Doors open at 6:30 P.M.
Show starts at 7:00 P.M.