A.D. Greer (Austin Artist)
A.D. Greer (1904-1998)
An artist, poet, lecturer, and illustrator, A D Greer became a legend among Texas landscape painters because of his popularity and the high-dollar values of his luminist, romantic paintings. He lives primarily in New York City but paints numerous southwestern landscapes.
Greer was born in Oklahoma Territory, and in 1907, after the death of his mother, was taken to Hutchinson, Kansas where he grew up on a farm. He studied at St. Johns Academy in Salina, Kansas and then began work as a sign painter.
Although many suffered financially during the Depression, he had numerous jobs painting church domes, lettering signs on water towers and smokestacks, and striping cars at a Ford assembly plant. He also worked as a logger in the Colorado Rockies and drove spikes for a railroad---jobs which provided him much opportunity to explore mountain ranges and other landscapes that became subjects of his paintings.
He is a member of the Guild of Freelance Artists in New York.
Source: Morris & Whiteside Renaissance Sale Auction catalogue, 10/27/2001
Grew up near Hutchinson and attended St. Johns Academy in Salina before beginning to work as a sign painter and holding a wide variety of other jobs. Lived in Austin, TX and New York, NY. His painting "Cattle Country'' was purchased by Lyndon B. Johnson and exhibited at the White House during his presidency. On November 1, 1980, Greer was made an Honorary
Texas Ranger.
Member: Guild of Freelance Artists of New York.
Exhibitions: Allen Art Gallery, Taos Art Gallery, American Fine Arts Gallery, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Sherwoods Gallery, Florence Art Gallery, Southwest Gallery.
Awards: Two first place blue ribbons, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Art Exhibition, 1979 and 1980.
SOURCES:
Susan Craig, "Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945)"
This and over 1,750 other biographies can be found in Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) compiled by Susan V. Craig, Art & Architecture Librarian at University of Kansas.
An artist, poet, lecturer, and illustrator, A.D. Greer became a legend among Texas landscape painters because of his popularity and the high-dollar values of his luminist, romantic paintings. Greer was born in Oklahoma Territory and in 1907 was taken to Hutchinson, Kansas where he grew up on a farm. He studied at St. Johns Academy in Salina, Kansas. He worked as a logger in the Colorado Rockies--which provided him opportunity to explore mountain ranges and other landscapes that became subjects of his paintings. He was a member of the Guild of Freelance Artists in New York.
A traditional oil painter of Western landscapes and still lifes, A D Greer was born in Pondcreek, Oklahoma in 1904 and living in Austin, Texas since 1965. "I was expelled from public school for drawing in class," he recalls. "Some of the drawings were risqué, and there was talk of sending me to the reform school. The probate judge, however, was a woman. She said I belonged in an art school, not in a reform school."
"I was about seventeen before I started painting with watercolors, and then I switched to oils when I was twenty. The first oil painting I sold was for $50. Even if I couldn't sell something, I'd draw a picture for something to eat. I took whatever I could get a hold of for money that was honest. In 1941, I was doing stage curtains, fine art for galleries, hustling pool. A man came to me and said he wanted to publish two of my paintings. I said, 'If I were your son, would be advise me to do this?' He said, 'Sure,' and so I did it.
"One of the paintings reproduced eventually sold more than a million copies. From then on, I didn't have to worry about selling. As soon as I'd get one done, I'd take it to a dealer, and they'd buy it. If I see a thing—say the North end of the Grand Canyon—I look at it until I memorize it, and then I sly back to Austin and paint it. I also have files of picture, but I don't paint from those pictures. If I would want to paint some grapes, I have a lot of pictures of grapes, and the night before I started, I might take those pictures out and look at them, then I'd put them away, go to bed, and get up the next morning and start painting. "Resource:
"Contemporary Western Artists", by Peggy and Harold Samuels 1982, Judd's Inc., Washington, D.C.
The artist, Aubrey Dale Greer, lived from 1904 to 1998. He was born in Oklahoma. He was active from 1938 to 1986 as a painter, muralist, and commercial artist. The artist is included in the "Dictionary of Texas Artists: 1800-1945" by Paula Grauer & Michael Grauer (1999), "Artist of Texas: Volume I" by J Pat Breedlove & Cindy Breedlove (1986), "American Artist" by Les Krantz (1985), and "The Texas Art Review" by Les Krantz (1982).
