MARY BAXTER (b. 1963)Born in Lubbock; resides in Marfa Born in Lubbock, Texas, raised in San Antonio, Mary Baxter has felt connected to the Chihuahuan Desert and the Trans-Pecos landscape, ever since family camping trips there as a little girl. She graduated in 1987 from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she studied painting and advanced printmaking. Her degree was self-financed by working in between semesters, across the country on the high-goal polo circuit. In 1995, she moved to a ranch an hour Southwest of Marfa to help raise stocker yearlings and train horses, and it was there that she began to see the beauty and make paintings of the rugged desert. After several years she was able to quit the ranch work and the training and trading of horses, and paint full-time. Moving to Marathon in 2002, Baxter used the old Shoemaker Hardware building as her studio and gallery for ten years before moving back to Marfa. Now she is happily ensconced in the former high school Vocational Ag. building as her current workshop. While her main studio and gallery is located in Marfa, Baxter uses a vintage Silver Streak trailer that allows her to work in more remote locations, where the smaller paintings are done ‘en plein air’ and the ideas and sketches are gathered for the large paintings that will be finished in the studio. This approach allows Baxter to uniquely capture the vast splendor of this remote region of Texas. Today, Mary Baxter is one of the most celebrated contemporary expressionist painters of the region. She captures her love for Far West Texas, New Mexico and the greater American Southwest as evidenced through her paintings, which reveal a deep understanding and nuanced knowledge of these storied lands, based on insights she has acquired over years of living here as a resident, a rancher and now a full-time painter. The high desert country of West Texas is engrained in her psyche, having who moved to the area over twenty years ago and currently splits her time between her home and studio in Marfa and being “off-the-grid” on their ranch near Truth-or-Consequences, New Mexico. Her paintings of the area, reflect Baxter’s profoundly internalized “sense of place”, these bold abstractions drawing from this expansive and dramatic country, and affirming her vision through grand execution and striking color schemes. There is a sense of serenity in her work. Balance and harmony are also hallmarks of Baxter’s work—mountains, desert vistas, plants, rain clouds rolling through a mountain pass or cumulous forms scudding over a pasture, the vibrant colors of sunsets and sunrises, slowly moving cattle, windmills, and stock tanks are all presented with equal weight. Her work calls out to viewers, encouraging them to take the time to revel in such wonders Since 2017, her work has been included in two major publications by Texas A&M University Press – Of Texas Rivers & Texas Art and The Art of Texas State Parks: A Centennial Celebration, 1923-2023. Named as one of the thirty-five “Centennial Artists” for the project, Baxter captured the Devils River State Natural Area, and the Chinati Mountains State Natural Area. Artist Statement I moved to the Big Bend region over twenty years ago, when we leased a ranch southwest of Marfa for raising yearling cattle. Most of the time I lived there by myself, checking water and putting out feed, and training some horses for extra income.The landscape kept working on me and I began to paint my surroundings. This was in the pre-digital age and the only place to have film developed was in Alpine, two and a half hours away. So I learned to rely instead on sketches and notes for reference, a practice I still prefer to use today.For several more years while I painted this area, I supported myself training and trading horses, and sometimes working a season on the high-goal polo circuit in Florida or California.Now I’m able to paint and sculpt fulltime in this place I call home. I love my job, and I especially like that I can make my living off this land without having to alter it in any way. MARY BAXTER (b. 1963)www.baxtergallery.comhttps://www.instagram.com/mkbpainter/ Selected Biographical and Career Highlights1963 Born in Lubbock, Texas1988 BS Business; Painting and Advanced Printmaking, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas2002–12 Baxter Studio and Gallery, Marathon, Texas2005 Best in Show, Trappings of Texas, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine2006–07 Residency, McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis2011 Residency, Madroño Ranch, Medina2017 Published in Of Texas Rivers & Texas Art, Texas A&M University Press 2022 Published in The Art of Texas State Parks: A Centennial Celebration, 1923-2023, Texas A&M University Press Resides in Marfa, Texas Selected Solo Exhibitions2022 Mary Baxter: Desert lands of the Southwest, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2019 Desert Life and Sky Recent Paintings, Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas2017 Mary Baxter: Painting Far West Texas, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2016 Mary Baxter: Paintings of the Big Bend, Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas2010 Solo, Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas 2010 Solo, Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas 2009 Solo, Eugene Binder Exhibition Space, Marfa, Texas 2003 Solo, Ballroom Marfa, Texas Selected Exhibitions2024 Painting Across Texas: Four Ranches x Four Artists – Mary Baxter, David Caton, Noe Perez & Jeri Salter, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX2023-24, The Art of Texas State Parks, Bullock Museum, Austin, TX; Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX; Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX; Old Jail Art Center, Albany, TX; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX2021 Contemporary Texas Regionalist Landscapes, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2020 The Texas Aesthetic, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2019 The New Show, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2019 The Texas Aesthetic: Thirty Contemporary Artists Redefining Texas Art, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2019 State of Contrast, Bank of America Center Lobby, Kinzelman Art Consulting & Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2019 Storied Lands, Contemporary Texas Landscape Painters, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2018 The Texas Aesthetic XII: The Search for "Texas" in Contemporary Art & Culture, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2017-18 Of Texas Rivers & Texas Art touring exhibition, San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo, Texas; Rotunda Gallery at the Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas; The Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas; and The Mayborn Museum at Baylor University, Waco, Texas2017-18 Contemporary Texas Regionalists Winter Show, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2017 Lonestar Legacies in Contemporary Texas Art, The Haley Memorial Library & History Center, Midland, Texas 2017 The Texas Aesthetic XI: The Search for "Texas" in Contemporary Art & Culture, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2017 AS IS: Rural Realism, The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas2016 The Texas Aesthetic X, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2016 The Lay of The Land: Contemporary Landscape Painting in Texas, curated by Kinzelman Art Consulting, Bank of America, Houston, Texas 2016 A Holiday Show: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas2015 Painting in the Texas Tradition: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Spring, Texas 2015 Ties that Bind: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, Turner House, Dallas, Texas 2015 Texas Aesthetic: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas 2015 The Big Bend of Texas: Interpretations by Seven Artists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas2015 The Holiday Show with the Contemporary Texas Regionalists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas2014-16 Invitational, National Ranching Heritage Museum, Lubbock, Texas 2014 The Texas Aesthetic, Annual Exhibition, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, TX2014 Painting in the Texas Tradition: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, Turner House, Dallas, Texas 2013 The Texas Aesthetic, Annual Exhibition, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, TX2013 Holidays at the Haley, Haley Memorial Library, Midland, Texas 2011 Group of four, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas 2008 Hunting Art Prize Exhibition, Houston, Texas 2008 Invitational, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas 2005–09 Annual Animal Art Show, Invitational, Big Bend Venue, Texas 2005–08 Trappings of Texas, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine, Texas 2005 Two-person show, Highland Gallery, Marfa, Texas 2004 Group of five, Baxter Gallery, Marathon, Texas Selected Public CollectionsBlue Bonnet Electric Cooperative, Bastrop, TXData Foundry, Austin, TXLakeside Country Club, Houston, TXMcDonald Observatory, Fort Davis and Austin, TXMarfa National Bank, Marfa, TXRiata Energy, Dallas, TXWarburg Pincus, Houston, TX and New York, NY