The Eagle Newspaper Article on June Dudley painter of realistic country gardens and nostalgic poetic landscape paintings

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The Eagle Newspaper Article on June Dudley

Well-known across the Southwest, Brazos Valley artist June Dudley has achieved her childhood dream by sticking to her roots. She paints what she loves - Texas - and people in and out of the Lone Star State have taken notice.

Dudley's College Station home is on a serene street canopied by trees and removed enough to escape the city noise. An American flag waves out front.

Her home complements her craft. It was built so her studio would let in the northern sunlight, perfect for viewing her medium of choice, acrylic paint, which she feels best displays her use of color.

Love of family is obvious all around Dudley's home, inside and out. She pointed out her studio window as she explained the links to her lineage displayed in the landscape. "The lantanas out front, they're some my daddy dug up out of a pasture. And I have irises that were my mother's."

The soundtrack to Lonesome Dove played as Dudley described each framed photo of her eight grandchildren and laughingly introduced her barking dog, Red, an old stray who followed her home one day and has become family.

The thread of family runs through her paintings, and it's a theme that buyers clearly appreciate. Her larger paintings sell for about $7,000, and Dudley's popularity extends all the way to the West Coast (she recently finished a large piece for a California show).

"They haven't always sold for those prices," said Dudley, who has painted professionally for 22 years. "It takes a lot of time to reach where you want to be, and you never really get there. You're always a student."

Teaching job

Dudley has been a teacher, too, though. She taught math and art in Bryan for seven years and in College Station for 11, while honing her craft in her spare time. "It got to the point that I was living two lives. I lived to go home and paint."

She was discovered at the Houston Livestock School Art Show by Bob Wygant, an artist who became her teacher and mentor for 20 years. She attended Wygant's workshops and when the time was right, she stopped teaching school and began painting full-time.

"A lot of people thought I was crazy [to stop teaching], including Bob."

She now has a thriving business selling paintings, prints, postcards and puzzles with her art displayed on them. She even has a specially commissioned label for a P&J Brands' frozen health-food product.

For her, business is personal. "I know the names of every creek, calf and person in my paintings." This statement is impressive, considering she has almost 700 paintings to her credit.

Dudley was not exaggerating. As she walked through the house from painting to painting, she reminisced as much as explained. Each painting inspires a background story.

As she passed a picture of her father, she said, "When I paint westerns, I am painting my heritage." Dudley said her great-grandfather, J.C. Chaney, brought some of the first Hereford cattle into Texas. "We still have cattle and horses in Iola, in the Navasota River Bottom, just 15 miles down the road."

In her living room, she paused at a large canvas with uncharacteristically subdued colors. "This is one painting I won't sell," she said. It depicts her son, Craig, leading one of her horses by Coon Creek on a still morning.

Sketching a cherished moment such as that snippet of her son's life is just the beginning of the artistic process. Determining the layout of her pieces is an intense technical challenge. Her studio is covered in acetate scraps she uses for placing figures and determining their sizes, and there are blots of excess paint and streaks from color-mixing experiments.

Giving advice

Dudley said her best advice for a prospective artist is that "you need a lot of brush knowledge. And, go for it." She characterizes her style as "impressionistic realism," noting the impressionistic use of color to emphasize the light on the scenery.

But probably the most strikingly authentic aspect of her paintings are the subjects. She showed an example of her personal stake in her art in her kitchen. There, Dudley pointed to a familiar-looking old, worn cowboy hat - hanging from a high cupboard - that appears frequently in her artwork. "That was my daddy's hat," she said proudly.

She moved across the room and warned she might get teary talking about the certificate displayed atop her high mantel. This award was not for Dudley's work, but for her families' labors over the past century. She described going to Austin to receive The Family Heritage Land Certificate, which recognized that her land - which became her inspiration - had been in the family for 100 years.

Her addiction to the outdoors, like her desire to paint, began in her childhood. "My sister would get mad because she always wanted to play and I would want to paint," Dudley said with a laugh.

'Daddy's cowboy'

Growing up in Texas, June "can't even remember the first time she rode a horse." Her husband, Richard, to whom she has been married for 50 years, "still works their ranch at least three days a week." When asked about this innate connection to the land, she said, "I am my daddy's cowboy. I never wanted to be in the house. I still don't."

Dudley's artwork reflects the richness of her life and love of nature. "I think God gave me the desire to paint and the talent, and I think he's blessed me with so much, giving me the grandkids and an appreciation of the land."

She believes her paintings appeal to others because they identify with the scenes. She said, "You want the person to feel like they're a part of it."

Dudley said her art has even inspired friendships. For instance, she received a letter from a woman, who - after giving birth to a stillborn child - was moved by seeing Dudley's painting Give me a Chance on the Internet. She corresponded with the woman, who felt so comforted by the image of a young boy reaching toward a horse, longing to ride, that she requested to have the image etched into the tombstone. The two women remain in touch.

Dudley said these types of relationships inspire her. She developed another close tie with the couple who commissioned two paintings for the Ronald McDonald House in Phoenix. Although she doesn't always know who buys her paintings, Dudley said she loves meeting people who relate to her artwork.

Awards, sales

Appreciation of her talent also has come in the form of awards and, of course, sales of her work.

Her proudest moment occurred in 1989 at the Bosque Conservatory of Fine Art competition in Clifton, she said. Dudley won Best in Show, the People's Choice Award and a $5,000 fellowship award. "It was just an unreal night. I'm standing there, and I'm just speechless."

And at a recent show in Carlsbad, N.M., Dudley sold four paintings in "two or three minutes." She overheard a man offer a woman $500 more for a painting she was buying, and the woman refused. "She still has that painting in her office."

Ironically, Dudley said she "went to college and wanted to major in art," but decided to do something where she could earn some money. She believes an emotional component has been crucial to her financial success.

"The way that you feel about your subject matter comes out in your paintings. I believe that with all my heart."

Charlotte Sellmyer's e-mail address is charlotte.sellmyer@ theeagle.com.

Please click on the below links to learn more about June Dudley and her extensive body of work.

Biography

Awards

News & Events

Spring Blooms Anew

Crimson Morning

P & J Farms

Howard Terpning had this to say about my work. He said that I had a very sensitive sense of color and he could tell I had strong feelings about my subject matter. In the July/August l994 issue of ART OF THE WEST I was one of the artists who was selected for their “Artists’ Preview”. This is where they select several artists to watch and I was one of the lucky ones. The rest of the information about my art career is included in my resume.

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