Texas Cactus and Bluebonnets, oil on canvas, 24 x 28, signed lower right: Helen Ferne Slimp, Slimp, a Virginia native, moved to San Antonio in 1910, after her brother took a job working with stained glass for a local glass company. She began studying under the tutelage of several renowned San Antonio artists, such as José Arpa (Spanish-American, 1858–1952) and Harry Anthony DeYoung (American, 1893-1956), and Taos, New Mexico, modernist Fremont F. Ellis (American, 1897-1985). Slimp quickly became an accomplished painter and printmaker, working in oils, lithography, stained glass, and china painting. She taught Porfirio Salinas (American, 1910-1973) and maintained friendships with high-profile figures like Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzam Borglum and art patron Marion Koogler McNay, whose collection would become San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum. Slimp is remembered fondly in San Antonio for securing her famous 1931 Castle Hills home by trading paintings for services, or “bluebonnets for blueprints.”