RRRandy andy andy PPPeytoneytoneyton Bluebonnets

from the J.R. Mooney Galleries

of Fine Art

Selections

Vol. 1

2014 edition

All artwork photography courtesy of J.R. Mooney

Galleries of Fine Art and the artist.

Prices are for current artwork, and can change at

any time.

© 2014

JR Mooney Galleries

305 S. Main

Boerne, Texas

78006

830-816-5106

Edited by Gabriel Diego Delgado and Marla Cavin.

Randy Peyton Bluebonnets

from the J.R. Mooney Galleries

of Fine Art

Selections

D Director’s

Note

For over the last three decades, Mr. Bob Mooney, President of J.R. Mooney Galleries has been

showing the signature artworks of San Antonio artist, Randy Peyton. Selling hundreds and

hundreds of original paintings, prints and giclees; Peyton’s work resides in many affluent art

collections in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Mooney started to represent Randy Peyton’s artwork

when the artist was a mere 19 years old. Today, Peyton is 56, painting the beloved bluebonnets

and lyrical landscapes that are cherished by art aficionados and appreciators alike.

In the process of studying Peyton’s artwork, I discovered the root of his artistic success. If

you look at the originators of the bluebonnet landscape genre, like the Onderdonk family,

Porfirio Salinas, Robert Wood, Arpe, W.A. Slaughter, etc. etc.; you can tie in a direct visual

connection of Peyton’s visual aesthetic to this significant historical lineage. In other words,

a lot of painters have painted bluebonnets and only a few make a living doing it. Peyton has

been so successful because he follows the historical model laid out before him. His

compositions and aesthetic do a great tribute to those of the artists mentioned above.

Peyton does not try to improve on any of the characteristics of the bluebonnet painting. He

bravely gives us rolling Texas hill country like Salinas’s, impressionistic flowers like the

Onderdonk’s and great aesthetic like Slaughter. He stays true to the genre and gives us an

opportunity to view a contemporary artist who captures the essence of this South Texas

phenomenon.

This curatorial selection of artwork in this catalog is only an example of the collection

available. Spotlights on the proceeding pages include artworks in private collections as well

as those available in the Boerne, Texas gallery location.

-Gabriel Diego Delgado

Gallery Director

Randy Peyton was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1958. At the age of fifteen he began his quest in painting the endless landscapes of Texas, favoring the bluebonnet. Peyton considers himself a self taught artist; having meticulously studied the paintings of Robert Wood, Porfirio Salinas, Don Warren, W. A. Slaughter, and many other regional landscape masters.

Randy Peyton portrays the Southwest using a

palette of fresh colors and a style attributable to

the majesty and tranquility of those awesome

oaks found in Texas. When one views a Peyton

Hill Country scene, it's obvious that the artist is

familiar with his subject. This is due to the fact

that Randy was born and reared in the beautiful

hill country surrounding San Antonio, Texas.

Peyton made his mark capturing the various

hues of our state flower - the bluebonnet.

He has since extended his talent with the brush

and palette to include airy summer scenes,

brilliant autumn scenes, and peaceful winter

scenes.

Peyton went to college in California, where he studied Computer Science,

but he dedicated himself to art full time in 1980. His first show sold out in

40 minutes. In 1981 he moved back to San Antonio. He continues to live

and work here.

FF

FF "From a very young age I knew I wanted to be

an artist. It seems all my friends were jealous

because I was the only one who really knew

what I wanted to do." -Randy Peyton

Detail

24” x 36”

Oil South of Town

RANDY PEYTON

TT

TT “Traditional landscape painter Randy Peyton,

shows a time honored scholarly application of

technique, application and compositional study.

He plays the role of student as he methodically

mimics the aesthetics of a signature 19th

century impressionistic painting.” -Gabriel Diego Delgado

Detail

16” x 20”

Oil A Treat in the Hills

RANDY PEYTON

RR “Randy Peyton represents the new cohort of Texas Landscape Painters; leading a post-Onderdonk generation of bluebonnet bounty. Peyton has captured the Texas landscape like a scenic shaman, creating emotional and nostalgic reminiscences.

RR “Randy Peyton represents the new cohort of Texas Landscape Painters; leading a post-Onderdonk generation of bluebonnet bounty. Peyton has captured the Texas landscape like a scenic shaman, creating emotional and nostalgic reminiscences.

Detail

24” x 24”

Oil

Gentle Trail Through

the Hills

RANDY PEYTON

PP

PP “Peyton causes the viewer to relax in an art induced meditation.”

-Gabriel Diego Delgado

Detail

30” x 24”

Oil

Laundry Day in the

Hill Country

RANDY PEYTON

AA

AA “As an Impressionistic painting, Peyton captures the true essence of the changing of light—as the day winds down slowing engulfing the viewer with the blue haze milieu.”

-Gabriel Diego Delgado

40” x 30”

Oil

Foundation of the

Republic

RANDY PEYTON

Detail

16” x 20”

Oil

Grand Oak

Private Collection

Bluebonnet landscape paintings have been revered, prodded and poked, coveted and chastised; an ongoing joke of

over-produced Sunday painters- a favorite category to paint of “holiday” painters. However, the history of such a

genre of painting has deep roots in Texas and especially San Antonio. Home to the great bluebonnet painters like the

Onderdonks, Salinas, Wood, Arpe, Slaughter and a small legion of others, Texas takes pride in its state flower in art

history, knowing it has inspired these great artists to produce such magnificent work. Along with this museum collected

success story comes positive growth of this art form with subsequent generations of painters that have studied the

bluebonnet masters and raised the painting style to new levels; clearing the way for bluebonnets to be well-respected

within the artistic landscape of modern painting.

Traditionalist landscape painter Randy Peyton shows a time honored scholarly application of technique, application and

compositional study. He plays the role of student as he methodically mimics the aesthetics of a signature 19th century

impressionistic painting.

Peyton’s rolling countryside landscape eases down into a valley, exposing the rustic rooftop of a barn weathered from

decades and decades of sun drenched Texas weather. He provides an avenue and movement for our eye to follow as

we move from foreground to background. Plus, Peyton’s stark shadows create illusionistic depth showing the Live

Oak’s character.

Cactus litter the ground, giving grace to the solar qualities of light, playing color on color with more emphasis on the

direct sunlight, its angle in the sky and the projected shade it transmits onto the vegetation around it. The Texas sky, a

signature trait of these parts is often portrayed as ever expanding.

© Gabriel Diego Delgado

Randy Peyton represents the new cohort of Texas Landscape Painters; leading a post-Onderdonk generation of bluebonnet bounty. Peyton has captured the Texas landscape like a scenic shaman, creating emotional and nostalgic reminiscences. He causes the viewer to relax in an art induced meditation.

South of Town, a 24 x 36” oil painting by Peyton, is a classic example of a signature style; complete with bluebonnets, live oaks, a small barn, a horse carriage trail and semi-arid vegetation. Peyton understands his role in the historical timeline of Texas landscape painters and this knowledge allows him a certain freedom evident in his images.

Bluebonnets bookend the sides of the gravel path that snakes through the painting like a question mark — pulling your eye straight to the horizon line and over to the dominate live oak on the left side of the mid-ground. To balance out the composition, Peyton places the wood paneled brown barn opposite of the ominous and mature tree. The humbled hay hangar opens its wide doors showing a shadowed interior. Deep obscurity hides straw bales and husbandry necessities. The roof peaks and pitches slant down to a diminutive corral — vacant of any animals. Although the dirt trail shows signs of wear, the total intuitive emptiness of the location implies an abandoned site — a ranch hidden deep in the backwoods of Texas. Impressionistic bluebonnets are minimally detailed, allowing for assumptions of validity. The official state flower of Texas is arranged in 7 neat patches of underbrush — each lining the trail to the barn. Spotted with yellow and pink flower variations, we see a deliberate attempt to establish geography, but not caring for a realistic rendition of regional botany.

The main players of this scenic sonata are the three Live Oaks that secure a stoic trifecta of Quercus fusiformis. Each one is placed in strategic areas of the composition — far left, far right and exact center. Accented with spare cactus and open skyline, Peyton’s work compels us to imagine ourselves in the typical barren landscapes of the Southern United States —feeling the arid heat and listening to the sounds of crickets.

-By: Gabriel Diego Delgado

24” x 36”

Oil South of Town

RANDY PEYTON

An exaggerated curvature shapes the foreground — elevating the viewer to the top of an unknown hillside, a vista

overlooking a scenic landscape. In the distance is the silhouetted backdrop a major metropolis – complete with capital

building and highrises.

Working on a simplistically balanced composition, Looking East has a mirrored effect with the likes of live oaks that dominate

the foreground. Alongside the minimal tree line is the tri-level cactus strata that are almost too perfect in shape and

intervals. Again the cactus and bluebonnets are arranged in a dual configuration that is cut across the forefront of the

footpath. With the trail entering the picture plan in the middle of the painting, our eye goes straight up the path, and into

the mid and background, with our first interest being drawn into the blue miasma skyline.

By: Gabriel Diego Delgado

22” x 34”

Oil Looking East

RANDY PEYTON

Moonlit Sonata is a painting that is more about the sheep on the distinctive horizon line, as Peyton disengages from his signatory architectural artistry to breathe life into a highly unusual pre-nocturnal livestock flock. Grazing on numerous and overgrown vegetation, the sheep speckle hints of grey and white along an already abundant floral field. Blending in hue and scale the animals do not distract from the foreground of blooming clusters. The mid ground in Moonlit Sonata is subjugated by two mature tree clusters behind a ranchland posted fence, obstructing the view of a shadowy tree line under a moonlit sky. Peyton’s pictorial illustration of the celestial moon is over exaggerated as if to mimic some alien-esque landscape similar to our own. Full in its entirety, the lunar satellite is round with perfection — illuminating the private estate of some Texas rancher. Although a yellowish haze drifts up from the lessened background, there is only a minimal painterly sense of the diminishing sunlight. As an Impressionistic painting, Peyton captures the true essence of the changing of light — as the day winds down slowing engulfing the viewer with the blue haze milieu.

-By: Gabriel Diego Delgado

18” x 36”

Oil

Moonlit Sonata

Private Collection

RANDY PEYTON