Rockport Center for the Arts (RCA) is hosting two exhibitions Sept. 10–Oct. 9, contrasting two distinct areas of Texas: On the Waterfront, featuring the coastal-inspired paintings of June Ainsworth, as well as with Senderos del Desierto in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring the incredibly realistic paintings by Salvador Rodriguez depicting regions of West Texas.
Both exhibitions will be viewable and available for collection at the downtown Rockport galleries. A public reception with the artists will be held Saturday, Sept. 11, from 5–7 p.m. to officially launch the show, which is free and open to the public. The event will be part of the Rockport Art Loop, a free, alfresco, walkable art experience from 5–7 p.m. featuring RCA and other galleries located in the downtown Rockport.
The first RCA solo show for Salvador Rodriguez, celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, will be hosted in the Main Gallery. Drawing inspiration from the landscapes of the Texas Big Bend and the desert region of Texas and northern Mexico, Rodriguez conveys the sense of majesty of a panoramic view and tranquility of desert life on canvas. Each painting is a project of months or even years, beginning with a trip and study of the location, and ending in his work after adding compositions in skies, plants and rocks to give balance.
“Before creating even a plant, I like to study them and know them, including their ecosystem, as well as the history and myths of the place I am trying to capture in my works,” Rodriguez said. “So beyond trying to reproduce a photographic copy is a composition and re-creation of the essence of the place.”
Although he earned a degree in computer systems engineering, art has remained his passion. Rodriguez has worked with various mediums and techniques, including oil and watercolor, but uses acrylic on canvas most frequently since it dries quickly and allows him greater mobility. Since arriving in Austin, Texas, in 2015, Rodriguez has painted more than 36 works exhibited in various galleries and events, including both East and West Austin Studio tours.
“Epic and sublime are the best words to describe Rodriguez’s paintings,” said Elena Rodriguez, curator of exhibitions for RCA. “They convey the majesty of the West Texas region in stunning, hyperrealistic detail.”
Featured in RCA’s Galeria Dos, Ainsworth’s colorful On the Waterfront plein-air oil paintings capture the beauty and serenity of the Texas coast. A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, now living in Rockport, the artist says although most of her paintings are traditional representations, she is very comfortable with abstract, often breaking subjects into a contemporary abstract painting.
“I am inspired by painting en plein air,” Ainsworth said. “These paintings begin as abstract shapes and can be taken in many different directions. A painting starts in the artist’s brain as an emotional response to a scene or a moment. It is the artist’s goal to have the viewer of the finished work feel an excitement and an emotion.”
Painting, creating and thinking dominate Ainsworth’s life. Ainsworth began taking art courses while attending high school in Dallas, working with other student artists at the Dallas Art Museum, including some of the most prominent Texas artists of the time. After earning her science degree with a focus on geology from the University of Oklahoma, which was unusual for women at the time, and working for an oil company in Kansas, she eventually returned to Texas and revisited an old passion — oil painting.
Since 1995, she has continued to study and practice her craft, both oil and watercolor, in places such as Wichita, Kansas, and Colorado Springs, where she was part of the art community, as well as Long Island, N.Y. where she joined the prestigious Guild Hall of East Hampton. Ainsworth is a member of the Wind Way Gallery collective in Rockport, where she displays her works.
“The world seen through June Ainsworth’s eyes is one of color, shapes, and light,” said Elena Rodriguez. “The simplified forms evoke the easy-going way of life on the Texas Coast and the reason so many people fall in love with Rockport, Texas.”
