Jack Hays by Texas Artist Jay Hester

Character study of Jack Hays by Texas Artist, Jay Hester as part of a new group of sketches for his upcoming solo exhibition in Oct. 2016. The painting sketch of Hays will be on display for the BPA’s Parade of Artists 2016 exhibition at J.R. Mooney Galleries-Boerne.

Stay tuned for more information about Jay Hester's solo exhibition of new work very soon!!!!!

 

"Jack Hays"
Jay Hester
24" x 18"
$4,500.00
Call 830-816-5106 to purchase or view before the "Parade"

Although small in stature, Hays was known for never backing down during a fight.  He learned that the determination of a few could whip a larger force.  He was an inspiration to those who followed him and became a true hero on the Texas frontier.  Hays is credited for turning back several Comanches during a fight at Enchanted Rock, near Fredericksburg, as well as forcing Mexican General Woll  out of San Antonio in 1842.  The addition of the Colt revolver additionally led to defeating attacking Indians at several locations in the Hill Country and beyond.  This gun allowed a Ranger to reload and fight from horseback.

Eventually, the California gold rush lured Hays to the area as he speculated in mining.  He became the first elected sheriff of San Francisco and helped found the city of Oakland.  He is, however, best known for his defense of the Texas frontier when Comanches dubbed him "Devil Yack.  He died in 1883 on San Jacinto Day.

----Col. John Coffee "Jack" Hays (January 28, 1817 – April 21, 1883) was a captain in the Texas Rangers and a military officer of the Republic of Texas. Hays served in several armed conflicts from 1836–1848, including against the Comanche people in Texas and during the Mexican-American War.
Jack Hays was born at Little Cedar Lick, Wilson County, Tennessee. His father Harmon A. Hays fought in the War of 1812, naming his son for a relative by marriage, Colonel John Coffee.
In 1836, at the age of 19, Jack Hays migrated to the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston appointed him as a member of a company of Texas Rangers because he knew the Hays family from his Tennessee years. Jack met with Houston and delivered a letter of recommendation from then-President Andrew Jackson.

In the following years, Hays led the Rangers on a campaign against the Comanche in Texas, and succeeded in weakening their power. Jack rode with an Apache Chief named Flacco who led the charge into every battle with him. The duo led and inspired the Rangers. In 1840 Tonkawa Chief Placido and 13 scouts joined with the Rangers to track down a large Comanche war party, culminating at the Battle of Plum Creek.

Later, Hays commanded the force against the invasion from Mexico of 1842. During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), Hays commanded the First Regiment of Texas Rangers at the Battle of Monterrey, established six companies along the northern and western frontier of Texas, and commanded the Second Regiment of Texas Rangers in Winfield Scott's Mexico City campaign.The Rangers excelled during this conflict, gaining nationwide fame.

On April 29, 1847, in the Magnolia Hotel, Hays married Susan Calvert, a descendant of George Calvert, First Baron Baltimore, in Seguin, Texas, where he had his home.His wife was also a descendant of the Benjamin Harrisons of Virginia and related to George and Martha Washington.
The Comanche had great admiration for Hays. Upon the birth of Hays' first son in California, Chief Buffalo Hump sent the Hays family a gift, a golden spoon engraved "Buffalo Hump Jr."
When son John Caperton Hays married Anna McMullin in San Francisco, two Texas Ranger legacies were combined. Her father, Captain John McMullin, was one of Jack Hays' closest friends; he had followed him to California.

Jack Hays' brother was Confederate Brigadier General Harry T. Hays of New Orleans. Their sister Sarah "Sallie" Hays Hammond was the mother of John Hays Hammond. John Hays Hammond, Jr., was an apprentice to Thomas Edison and worked with Nikola Tesla; he was on the board of directors for RCA.

In 1849 Hays was appointed by the United States government as the US Indian agent for the Gila River country in New Mexico and Arizona.

The next year the Hays joined the migration to California, leading a party of a party of Forty Niners from New York that traveled in wagons to California from Texas. This party pioneered a shortcut on Cooke's Wagon Road that saved a long journey to the south. That improved route became known as the Tucson Cutoff. Hays was elected sheriff of San Francisco County in 1850, and later became active in politics. In 1853, he was appointed US surveyor-general for California.

Hays was one of the earliest residents of the city of Oakland. In the following years, he amassed a considerable fortune through real estate and ranching enterprises. In 1860, while in Virginia City, Nevada, on business, he heard the news of the First Battle of Pyramid Lake. He commanded a force of volunteer soldiers at the Second Battle of Pyramid Lake.

During the Civil War, Hays retired from military involvement.

In 1876, Hays was elected as a delegate to the Democratic Party national convention, which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency of the United States.

Jack Hays died in California on April 21, 1883, and his remains were interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.

John C. Hays is the namesake of Hays County, Texas.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coffee_Hays


"Jack Hays"
Jay Hester
24" x 18"
$4,500.00
Call 830-816-5106 to purchase or view before the "Parade"

Flacco the Younger by Jay Hester

New character study painting  by Jay Hester for the Parade of Artists, opening next week. This study will be available for sale at the JR Mooney Galleries - Boerne location.

Purchase here at:

http://www.jrmooneygalleries.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=7102


 Flacco was the youngest of two chiefs, father and son, both named Flacco. Flacco the Elder, a friend of Sam Houston, was made a colonel in the Texas Army for services to the Republic of Texas. He could write his name and signed his signature as "Flacco Colonel." His son, Flacco the Younger, led Lipan scouts for Jack Hays' company of Rangers and taught Hays how to trail.

He also taught him Comanche battle tactics. He and Hays were close. Flacco, it was said, constantly watched Hays and nothing the Ranger captain did escaped his notice.
In many of Hays' fights with Comanches from 1840 through 1842, Flacco was there, with his Lipans as scouts and warriors. Several times Flacco saved Hays' life or Hays saved Flacco's. On one foray in search of hostile Comanches, Rangers invited Flacco to share a meal. "No," he said, "warriors never eat much on warpath. Captain Hays is great chief, but Rangers eat much too much on warpath. Too much eat, too much eat."

In 1841 in a battle on the Llano, Hays' Rangers attacked 200 Comanches and during the fight, Hays' horse ran straight at the Indian lines. Thinking that Hays was charging, Flacco rode after him. Both men rode through the Comanche lines and came out the other side untouched. Flacco said Captain Jack was "bravo too much." The Lipan chief added, "Me and Red Wing not afraid to go to hell together. Captain Jack not afraid to go to hell by himself."

In 1842, at some soiree at LaGrange, Flacco was one of the invited guests. He dressed for the occasion, wearing his breechclout and leggings of white buckskin and a string of beads, amulets and silver wrist bands. He was in the company of Capt. Mark Lewis.

A young lady played the piano for the chief's amusement and afterward, someone remarked that the young lady was a particular favorite of Capt. Lewis. "Oh, no," she said, "I am not tall enough for the captain."

Looking over and sizing up the young lady, who was somewhat short and overweight, Flacco said, "You tall too, but the Great Spirit, him put hand on head and mash you down."

In 1842, Flacco joined Jack Hays as part of the punitive Somervell expedition into Mexico that led to the disastrous Mier raid.

When Somervell was forced to turn back, he gave permission for those of his men who needed fresh mounts to confiscate horses from an old ranch near Laredo, since the herds were a source of supply for bandits. Flacco rounded up a caballada of 40 horses, a valuable herd. On the way to San Antonio, Flacco and his deaf-mute companion were murdered and the horses were stolen.

There was no real mystery about who killed Flacco, but Sam Houston, in his second term as president of the Republic, was anxious to prevent hostilities with Lipan-Apaches, should they learn that their young chief had been killed by two white horse thieves. Houston spread the word that Flacco was killed by a Mexican bandit named Agaton. Houston asked Noah Smithwick, who lived near Flacco the Elder, to tell him that Mexican bandits killed his son. Smithwick said it was simply a ruse to prevent the Lipans from going on the warpath. A Houston newspaper added to the misinformation, reporting that the bandit Agaton had been sighted on the Nueces River and some traders said he was responsible for murdering Flacco. Hays' Rangers were sent to capture or kill Agaton.

The real killers were James Ravis and Tom Thernon, the two men helping drive Flacco's horses. They were seen in Seguin with the horses shortly after Flacco's murder. They were not pursued or arrested or changed because their arrest and trial would not fit the concocted story that the Mexican bandit Agaton was the killer.

Flacco the Elder distributed his son's possessions to friends, sending one of his son's prized horses to Sam Houston.

Before it was delivered, pranksters at LaGrange, opponents of Houston, disfigured the horse by cutting off its mane and tail. Houston sent the Lipan Apaches a poem about the young Flacco.

 Perhaps no single piece of Houston's writings have been reprinted as often as the words he wrote in condolence to Flacco the Elder on the death of his son, part of which is printed below:

My heart is sad!
A cloud rests upon your nation.
Grief has sounded in your camp;
The voice of Flacco is silent.

His words are not heard in council;
The chief is no more.
His life has fled to the Great Spirit,
His eyes are closed;
His heart no longer leaps
At the sight of the buffalo.

The voices of your camp
Are no longer heard to cry
"Flacco has returned from the chase."

Grass will not grow
On the path between us.Let your wise men give counsel of peace,
Let your young men walk in the white path.
The gray-headed men of your nation
Will teach wisdom.

—Thy brother, Sam Houston.

After the death of their son, Flacco and his wife began to fast, a Lipan custom. When they visited Noah Smithwick, they had starved themselves until, said Smithwick, they looked like mummies. Smithwick convinced them to end their fast and share a meal cooked by his wife.

The name of Flacco the Younger is remembered in large measure due to his connection with two superstars of Texas history — Jack Hays and Sam Houston. He is remembered because of his devoted friendship with Hays and because of the Houston's elegy on his death, who wrote of Flacco that — "His heart no longer leaps at the sight of the buffalo."


Source: http://www.caller.com/columnists/murphy-givens/death-of-an-indian-chief-flacco-the-younger-ep-359046040-316150601.html

Parade of Artists 2016 at J.R. Mooney Galleries-Boerne

“Key Players” 20th Annual Parade of Artists Barker, Hester, Scheidt, and Sinclair    Join the J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art - Boerne on Saturday and Sunday April 9-10, 2016, for an exciting weekend of Fine Art in “Key Players,” a J.R. Mooney Galleries exhibition celebrating the Boerne Professional Artist ‘Parade of Artists’ weekend extravaganza.  The artworks in “Key Players” include paintings by BPA members Margie Barker, Jay Hester, Bill Scheidt, and Sidney Sinclair.   **Special to this exhibition will be the preview and inclusion of nationally renowned Boerne painter, Jay Hester.  Hester will be showcasing a series of new Apache, Comanche, and Texas Ranger character studies and sketches that will be integral for his upcoming solo exhibition at J.R. Mooney Galleries - Boerne in October, 2016, titled Jay Hester Presents: “Texas - Stories of the Land.”  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Boerne Professional Artists (BPA) is hosting its 20th Annual Parade of Artists on April 9th and 10th, 2016.  The 'Parade' is a festive weekend event held each spring, which attracts art enthusiasts from around the country to visit various art venues in Boerne.  It is a self-guided tour of local galleries, studios and other venues principally located along the Hill Country Mile and Historic districts of downtown Boerne. Over 30 local artists will be featured at various venues in this year’s 'Parade' with a diversity of media ranging from paintings in oils, watercolor, pastels and acrylics, to bronze and relief sculpture, jewelry, photography, pottery, fused glass, encaustics, mixed media and more.  In addition to the established Boerne art galleries where more than a hundred artists of national and international reputation will be represented, several downtown businesses have offered space for artists’ displays, while others are showing their works in their own studios. Free of charge, as always, the 'Parade' opens on Saturday, April 9th from 10 am until 8 pm with wine and hors d'oeuvres provided at many of the venues that evening.  On Sunday, April 10th, the venues will be open from 11am until 4 pm. Several artists will be demonstrating their individual techniques at various times throughout the event.   In addition to the 'Parade', BPA's other art events are widely advertised and attended, which makes Boerne well known for its commitment to the arts and demonstrates how a thriving arts community contributes to the cultural and economic well-being of the area.  For additional information on Boerne Professional Artists, its members and the 20th Annual Parade, please visit www.boerneart.com.  Boerne Professional Artists is an affiliated partner of the Hill Country Council for the Arts (HCCArts.com).

Parade of Artists in Boerne

20th Annual Parade of Artists

“Key Players”

Barker, Hester, Scheidt, and Sinclair

 

Join the J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art - Boerne on Saturday and Sunday April 9-10, 2016, for an exciting weekend of Fine Art in “Key Players”, a J.R. Mooney Galleries exhibition celebrating the Boerne Professional Artist ‘Parade of Artists’ weekend extravaganza.  The artworks in “Key Players” include paintings by BPA members: Margie Barker, Jay Hester, Bill Scheidt, and Sidney Sinclair.

**Special to this exhibition will be the preview and inclusion of nationally renowned Boerne painter, Jay Hester. Hester will be showcasing a series of new Apache, Comanche, and Texas Ranger character studies and sketches that will be integral for his upcoming solo exhibition at J.R. Mooney Galleries-Boerne in October 2016 titled Jay Hester presents: “TX- Stories of the Land”.

--Boerne Professional Artists (BPA) is hosting its 20th Annual Parade of Artists on April 9th and 10th, 2016. The 'Parade' is a festive weekend event held each spring which attracts art enthusiasts from around the country to visit various art venues in Boerne. It is a self-guided tour of local galleries, studios and “other venues” principally located along the Hill Country Mile and Historic districts of downtown Boerne.

Over 30 local artists will be featured at various venues in this year’s 'Parade' with a diversity of media ranging from paintings in oils, watercolor, pastels and acrylics, to bronze and relief sculpture, jewelry, photography, pottery, fused glass, encaustics, mixed media and more. In addition to the established Boerne art galleries where more than a hundred artists of national and international reputation will be represented, several downtown businesses have offered space for artists’ displays, while others are showing their works in their own studios.

Free of charge, as always, the 'Parade' opens on Saturday, April 9^th from 10am until 8pm with wine and hors d'oeuvres provided at many of the venues that evening. On Sunday, April 10^th, the venues will be open from 11am until 4pm. Several artists will be demonstrating their individual techniques at various times throughout the event.

In addition to the 'Parade', BPA's other art events are widely advertised and attended, which makes Boerne well known for its commitment to the arts and demonstrates how a thriving arts community contributes to the cultural and economic well-being of the area. For additional information on Boerne Professional Artists, its members and the 20th Annual Parade, please visit www.boerneart.com. Boerne Professional Artists is an affiliated partner of the Hill Country Council for the Arts (HCCArts.com)

"Switch 36" Opens Tomorrow in Boerne, TX 4PM

"SWITCH 36"   Opens     TOMORROW!!   Preview of "Switch 36" artist, Cliff Cavin Texas Hill Country vs. New Mexico  By: Katherine Shevchenko Art & Framing Consultant, J.R. Mooney Galleries- Boerne   San Antonio based artist, Cliff Cavin, has been a landscape painter with two primary subject matters - the Texas Hill Country and New Mexico. For Switch 36, I wanted to show both sides of his pursuits to present an in-depth and cohesive look at his output.  In these recent offerings, Cavin’s light is more subdued, and the mood is not necessarily melancholy, but more solemn.  A traditional ode to the bluebonnet is included in “Bluebonnet Blooms,” where a thicket of trees are in the midst of colliding blue and purple flowers, that are comprised of built up strata of weighty strokes of pigment. In the other recent offerings from his easel, “South of Town” and “Late Spring,” less emphasis is placed on the tried and true bluebonnet; instead a proliferation of verbenas, a common sight on Texas hillsides every spring, become gentle tides of violet brush strokes.  Violet is a color that has been known to draw philosophers; it is indicative of a contemplative plane of being, and the emphasis is on what is not being revealed, rather than what is.     The economy of information is more telling in Cavin’s style of brushwork, going for a heavier build up of layering and impasto to tell the story of the lands that he has traversed, rather than meticulous detailing.  Untouched areas of Texas Hill Country remain sharp in Cavin’s attention, a continuation of the Impressionist tradition.  This undivided focus on the elements of nature, color and light represents Cavin’s perspective and his philosophical approach towards landscape painting.            Each geographic region dictates temperature, palette and color choices.  In New Mexico, an area famous for its glorious desert vistas, Cavin has been an avid devotee to capturing the region’s visual splendor.  Attracted to the intense saturation of color that is observed in the higher altitude of New Mexico, Cavin has been mesmerized in depicting the magic that is witnessed in the desert, that is manifested in extremes of light and shadow enticing one’s eye through the composition. In “Horizons” and “Forever Blue,” the colors are electric, intense and dramatic.  Gestural brush strokes make a tribute to the land by celebrating its grandeur in scope and presence.  Humble desert vistas that would likely be overlooked become endearing; one has to marvel at the tenacity of all life that calls such harsh, and at times unforgiving, conditions home.  Cavin shows us the desert, commonly thought to be devoid of life, is exactly the opposite.  His New Mexican deserts are full of life; the landscape up to the horizon line is populated with various plants, brush and cacti. Cavin paints in a direct style, and edits out the extraneous details.  He shows us the crucial structures of the subjects he captures with his brush, from verdant fields of Texas wildflowers to the indomitable deserts of New Mexico.  Color and light are the vehicles that Cavin uses to draw attention to the miraculous that he sees in the world, with heavily built up brush strokes that are jubilant in their physicality; a painter’s vision translated to the two-dimensional, yet refusing to be confined.     Preview of "Switch 36" artist, Margie Barker     Changes: Transformations in the Landscape By: Katherine Shevchenko Art & Framing Consultant, J.R. Mooney Galleries- Boerne   Tucked away in the hills of Helotes, Margie Barker has been diligently working away on her craft in her studio.  An astute observer and lover of the land, she faithfully captures the springtime sun-kissed flowers that explode in profusion on the off beaten tracks of the Texas Hill Country, using acrylic paint applied with careful and patient strokes.  In the piece, “Vibrant Hill Country,” it is the intrigue of transition that becomes a thematic focal point.  As the live oak trees go through their cycle of dropping leaves as the season changes, the tree on the right “still hasn’t gotten around to it yet,” while the other is shedding its foliage to make way for new growth.  This all takes place on the stage of a field heavily blanketed with yellow wildflowers.  Margie is fascinated by the paths and the presence of roadways and how they cut and wind through the landscape, further encapsulating the metaphor of the journey that is present in transition, through the passage of time and the cycles of nature that are evident in the environment.  Due to the usage of color and the presence of light and artistic license, she creates, in her words, “happy scenes” that she has enjoyed doing for nearly half a century.     As per her usual way of working, Margie amasses a trove of photo references taken from travels throughout the Texas countryside, which she will use to construct the elements of her paintings.  “On the Way to Llano” was conceived from that process.  Using her intuition, Margie took a nearly barren field with a slight sprinkling of bluebonnets and graciously bestowed a vivid field of Indian paintbrushes, a common wildflower seen in the Hill Country and known for its red color.  She is not tied to reproducing the landscape mechanically; a feeling will take hold and guide her brush to communicate to the viewer the feeling of beauty through the language of flowers. The “Wren’s Nest” is a delicate orchestration of the extremes of life, where the remains of a wren’s nest that once contained most vulnerable occupants, is fortressed in the most defensive of flora, the prickly pear cactus.  The demonstration of opposites becomes apparent in “Delicate Blossoms,” where the white flowers are neighbors with a cactus that is in full bloom with soft flowers in pink and yellow colors.  In “Pop’s Old Home,” differing states coexist together as an abandoned cottage is reclaimed by nature; manmade materials are ebbing away as nature is triumphantly flourishing all around in the form of peach trees bursting with blossoms and vivacious, colorful flowers - a poetic metaphor for the inevitability of change.       Changes are constant phenomena, and it is very apparent in the landscape as it cycles from one season to another.  Even the creek beds she portrays are poignant reminders, especially in Texas, that they will only be full for a transitory time, and then possibly be dry throughout most of the year until a generous rain comes along and replenishes them.  But, at least while they are full, it is a hopeful sign of the benevolence of the renewing powers of nature.  In Margie’s landscape paintings the organic joy is present in the colors of nature and in the details that she painstakingly renders.  She gives her audience glimpses of beauty that is undeniably present, yet rarely seen, unless you are willing to go off the beaten path in order to experience the transformative lessons that are inherent to the land.    Copyright © 2016 JR Mooney Galleries, All rights reserved. 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