Helen Hunter (1920-2003), Prickly Pear and Thistle, oil on canvas, 14 x 12", frame: 15.75 x 18.5"

Provenance: A San Antonio, Texas estate

Helen Crain Hunter was born in 1920 in Pleasanton, Texas. Hunter studied under Ellie Wheeler, a Poteet artist whose teachers were Jose Arpa and the Onderdonks. For two summers Hunter took classes at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. After graduating high school as the valedictorian in 1937, Hunter attended Texas Woman's University. While attending school, she was the cartoonist for the daily newspaper, and art editor of the college yearbook. She was also a charter member of the university's chapter of The National Honorary Art Fraternity. In 1940, she was chosen to design three stained glass panels of the Madonna Window for prominent architect O'Neal Ford's "The Little Chapel of the Woods". During World War II, she worked at Kelly Field in San Antonio as a draftsman. Hunter began to paint again in 1957, studying for seven years with San Antonio artist Leslie Larsson. Painting blooming prickly pear cactus, in oils, with realism was her specialty. She gained regional distinction for her renditions of the flora and fauna of arid South Texas, particularly the many varieties of cactus, wildflowers, birds, and brush country landscapes of the area around her. Hunter participated in many juried shows, winning ribbons, prizes and honors including the top award and purchase prize of the Texas Watercolor Society's Annual Exhibition in 1965. Hunter's work is featured in many private collections and is exhibited in Houston, Corpus Christi, Del Rio, Austin, Pearsall, and San Antonio.