MARY BAXTER (b. 1963)

Mary Baxter has always had a keen interest in art, particularly as a result of family camping trips to the Chihuahuan Desert. She pursued her passion at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she studied painting and advanced printmaking and earned her Bachelor of Science degree. Fully self-financing her studies, Baxter worked across the country on the high goal polo circuit.

Baxter moved to the Big Bend region when she leased a ranch Southwest of Marfa for raising cattle and training horses. It was there that she began to see the beauty of the rugged desert and interpret it in her paintings. After several years, she was able to free herself of ranch duties to paint full-time.

She relocated to Marathon and opened the Baxter Studio and Gallery in the old Shoemake Hardware Building. There, she continued to produce and sell her works for ten years. Baxter currently resides and works in Marfa, using a vintage Silver Streak trailer to live in more remote locations where she creates some of her smaller, plein air paintings. She frequently gathers ideas and sketches for larger pieces which she finishes later in her studio. This approach has helped Baxter truly convey the beauty of the Texas landscape.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1963 Born in Lubbock, Texas

1988 BS, Painting and Advanced Printmaking, University of Texas at San Antonio

2002–12 Baxter Studio and Gallery, Marathon

2005 Best in Show, Trappings of Texas, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine

2006–07 Residency, McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis

2011 Residency, Madroño Ranch, Medina

2022, Published in The Art of Texas State Parks: A Centennial Celebration, 1923-2023, Texas A&M University Press

Resides in Marfa, Texas

Selected Exhibitions

2003 Solo, Ballroom Marfa, Texas

2004 Group of five, Baxter Gallery, Marathon, Texas

2005 Two-person show, Highland Gallery, Marfa, Texas

2005–08 Trappings of Texas, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine, Texas

2005–09 Annual Animal Art Show, Invitational, Big Bend Venue, Texas

2008 Hunting Art Prize Exhibition, Houston, Texas

2008 Invitational, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas

2009 Solo, Eugene Binder Exhibition Space, Marfa, Texas

2010 Solo, Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas

2010 Solo, Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2011 Group of four, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas

2013 Holidays at the Haley, Haley Memorial Library, Midland, Texas

2014 National Ranching Heritage Museum, Lubbock, Texas

2014 Painting in the Texas Tradition: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, Turner House, Dallas, Texas

2015 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, Texas

2015 The Holiday Show with the Contemporary Texas Regionalists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2016 The Texas Aesthetic X, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2016 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, Texas

2017 Mary Baxter: Painting Far West Texas, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2017 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, Texas

2017 AS IS: Rural Realism, The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas

2017-18 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, Texas

2017-18 Contemporary Texas Regionalists Winter Show, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2018 The Texas Aesthetic XII: The Search for "Texas" in Contemporary Art & Culture, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2019 The New Show, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2019 The Texas Aethetic: Thirty Contemporary Artists Redefining Texas Art, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2019 State of Contrast, Bank of America Center Lobby, Kinzelman Art Consulting & Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2019 Desert Life and Sky Recent Paintings, Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2019 Storied Lands, Contemporary Texas Landscape Painters, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2020 The Texas Aesthetic, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2021 Contemporary Texas Regionalist Landscapes, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2022 Solo, Desertlands of the Southwest, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX

2023-24, 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, TX

Selected Public Collections

Blue Bonnet Electric Cooperative, Bastrop, TX

Data Foundry, Austin, TX

Lakeside Country Club, Houston, TX

McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis and Austin, TX

Marfa National Bank, Marfa, TX

Riata Energy, Dallas, TX

Warburg Pincus, Houston, TX and New York, NY

Mary Baxter

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