Bill Barrick (b. 1945), "Sears Best", 1982, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16", frame: 26.5 x 22.5", includes documentation from exhibition at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, 1984

Provenance: An Austin, Texas collection

Remnants of rural America are the principle focus of paintings by Bill Barrick. He is a chronicler of life in the developing Southwest. Much of his work pays tribute to early settlers who broke untamed prairies and established the roots from which sprang the villages, towns, and industry that lead to our contemporary culture. His desire to capture the spirit of rural America with its stark beauty, hardship, and simple joys is the driving force and appeal of his art. You won't see cowboys or Indians in Barrick's paintings. He feels that despite their great prominence in the media, they were not the ones who established the permanent foundation on which the modern Southwest was born. Barrick contends that the credit should go to the farmer, saying: "I think agriculture and farmers did more that anyone, because they were the people who settled down and established something." A native of High Plains, Texas, Barrick was raised on the family farm near Abernathy. With a degree from West Texas State University and additional study at Texas Tech and North Texas State, he taught art for four years before moving his family to Austin, where he took a job in a gallery that allowed him to paint on the job. Less than two years after that, he made the decision to devote himself to painting full-time. Today Barrick makes his home in Cedar Park, Texas.