- NARRATOR: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - This is not only a fabulous exhibition of landscape paintings, but it's also a historical record.

- The reason I come out here is because I love hawks.

It's life changing if you ever get a chance to experience it for yourself.

- Our wildlife management areas serve as places to do long-term management and research.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- NARRATOR: We're celebrating one hundred years.

[dramatic music] - Weeeeee!

[dramatic music] One hundred years of adventure.

[dramatic music] One hundred years of beauty.

[dramatic music] One hundred years of community.

[dramatic music] [bubbling] [dramatic music] Join us as we celebrate 100 years of your Texas State Parks and the bright future ahead.

[dramatic music] [wind whooshing] [dramatic music] - 2023 is the Centennial of the State Park system, it was established 100 years ago, in 1923.

[hammer thudding] - The wonderful thing about art, or good art, is you see something, but it also makes you feel something.

It reminds people of the tremendous natural heritage that we have in Texas.

[water trickling] [gentle music] - I divide my time painting the rivers in the Hill Country and out here in Big Bend.

I feel very honored to have been asked.

- LINDA REAVES: Each of them brings something different.

- BILL REAVES: It's the artist's interpretation, I think, that is really, really the value-added component of all of this.

This is not only a fabulous exhibition of landscape paintings, but it's also a historical record of the state parks of Texas.

There's never been anything quite like this before.

- Really contrasting styles.

- Mm-hm.

[gentle music] - THOM LEMMONS: They're all amazing and captivating in their own way.

[gentle music] - These are some studies I did of Fresno on better mornings than this.

Beautiful little creek that almost always has some water in it, which is kind of rare out here.

And this morning, I'm gonna paint up at this spot.

I'm David Caton, an artist, a painter, live in Utopia.

But I come out here to Big Bend and Big Bend Ranch three or four times a year.

Off on a cold morning.

Cold, wet morning.

I'm a landscape painter.

I think it is harder to find these remote, wild, untouched areas.

Right here.

Pull myself together here.

A group of artists were contacted and asked if we wanted to take part in the Texas State Park Centennial.

When it's cold like this, your fingers don't work too well.

Each artist has two parks, and we will produce two paintings of each park.

I was lucky.

They asked me if I wanted to do a third park, so besides Big Bend Ranch and Garner, which is in my backyard, I've got also the Davis Mountains State Park, which I'm excited about.

[gentle music] I do love to paint in all three of those places, probably my favorite parks.

There's not very much light.

I think it's gonna be a fun project.

- ANDREW SANSOM: Unlike a photograph, a painting demonstrates that there is more to the landscape than we can actually see.

- Just a little sketch.

[dramatic music] I'm excited painting anything out here.

[dramatic music] I find inspiration in so many different ways out here.

- This is a painting by my friend David Caton, who is known for his paintings of moving water.

I convinced my colleagues, Bill and Linda Reaves, former gallery owners, to collaborate on a book.

This is the first book that Bill and Linda Reaves and I did together, which is, features many of the same Texas artists that will appear in this centennial book.

And the back cover is once again by David Caton.

We have recruited 30 Texas artists to paint 60 paintings of state parks across the state.

The book will also be accompanied by a series of exhibitions of the paintings themselves.

There was an effort to select locations which reflected the diversity of state parks.

We included the historic sites.

We wanted to make sure that historic legacy was represented.

[sheep baaing] - I'm Fidencio Duran.

I'm a painter and a muralist.

I'm here at the LBJ State Park at the Sauer Beckmann Pioneer Farm on a project for the centennial of the Texas Park System.

I was drawn to it specifically because it reminded me very much of my own childhood.

My parents worked as tenant farmers.

We always had chickens and raised our vegetables, butchered a hog around the wintertime for meat.

My grandparents lived right down the road in a little house with a wood burning stove.

Takes me back quite a bit.

The creaking of a screen door.

[door creaks] The smells, the old materials, jars of preserves, and the tools that are here at the farm.

Very reminiscent of where I grew up.

[cow mooing] [gentle music] My work can be described as being narrative.

I like to show people doing things or in the process of making something.

Seeing how much time it can take to make something as simple as a thread from wool, I think, is very enlightening and very refreshing.

[gentle music] [light road noise] - This is the end of Colorado Canyon, I think it's called.

It's just one of the grand views, including Big Bend National Park.

It's a place I've loved to paint for many years.

My brushes and my palette.

Start mixing up some colors here.

It's a nice composition with the zigzag of the river.

It's a beautiful spot.

But this is a real challenge with this low light.

[dramatic music] This light is pretty humbling, if not humiliating.

[dramatic music] Even if it's not the most ideal situation, it's still... it's just great being out here.

I try to come out to Colorado Canyon every time I come out and... maybe someday I'll get it right.

I'm out here with other painters.

A group of us come out here several times a year.

Nice, Bob.

And learn from one another, and it's fun to see what we all do.

[gentle music] I don't want to get bogged down in details at this point in the painting.

But it was so interesting when the clouds were going across these mountains.

I was a little sad at how flat the light was this morning, but this has really grown on me.

[paintbrush scratching] My only goal here is to just block in this painting and see if I- if I like what's happening.

I really like the study that I did on site, but I just think I want to try for something with a little bit more drama.

I'll bring that in the studio and then I'll work out ideas with sky and shadow.

Maybe create a cloud shadow.

I'm going to have this cloud back here.

Half of it illuminated, something to give it more movement and a stronger composition.

[gentle music] - From those photographs that I took, I like action shots.

The women spinning the yarn and showing the process.

I'm honoring that they've held on to that and they're exposing the greater public to these ways of living.

It was a priority of LBJ.

I think he really wanted people to realize not only what came before, but also to have some understanding of the interrelation between humanity and the land itself.

- I wish I could be outside more, but the majority of my time is in the studio.

So this is looking east, just on the other side of the hill.

The sky is a little bombastic, but this was the first one I did for this whole project.

I have no idea which ones will make the final cut.

- It's a pretty slow process.

It is nice to see it taking shape.

This is my painting representing Lockhart State Park, about completed.

- We have to have our work done by the end of May because A&M Press is doing a book, and it'll take them about a year to put that together.

[gentle music] - This is the University Press.

I'm Thom Lemmons.

I'm the editor in chief.

Having a book is a whole lot like having a new baby come into the family.

A book is the focus of so many different people at so many different points in the process.

I feel like almost if I touch that water, my fingertip would be wet.

There are a tremendous number of people who start to really look forward to the arrival of the new baby.

It's just a thrill when that thing shows up in the warehouse and we can actually hold it and look at it.

"The Art of Texas State Parks" really kind of pulls in everything that we're interested in.

And then the fact that it's a beautiful book just is the icing on the cake.

That's it.

- That looks really nice.

- It really does.

- We'll be selling one painting from each of the artists.

Revenue from the sale of paintings, the royalties from the book, all go to the Parks and Wildlife Foundation for the benefit of state parks.

- Today, at Sarah Foltz' gallery here in Houston, Sarah is hosting this exhibition and sale of works.

So this will be a benefit for the future of the parks from the artists who participated in actually painting the parks.

Wonderful work we have on the walls.

And I think there are a number of artists that will be here this evening.

- It's a real wonderful array of both subject matter and artistic style.

This has been five years in the making.

- BILL: Yeah.

Yeah.

- ANDY: And worth every minute of it.

- Yeah, really captured the essence there of that incredible spot out there in West Texas.

Everything that was produced was pretty exceptional, it really was.

- ANDY: Seeing this in real life really makes it exciting.

- BILL: I think they've done a great job of capturing the diversity of the parks.

- We've got some of the oldest, a la Mother Neff and others, but also ones that have just come into that system.

- LINDA: This is the newest park.

- Oh really?

- LINDA: Palo Pinto.

- DARRELL: Hi, Fidencio.

How's it going?

I'm Darrell.

- FIDENCIO: Darrell, how are you?

- DARRELL: It's so much fun seeing them in person, as you know.

- FIDENCIO: It's wonderful.

[laughs] - LINDA: I'm looking at your painting, Jeri.

It just keeps catching my eye.

- JERI: Oh good, I'm glad.

- Bill and I both, being associated with this, learned so much about the state park system.

We have wonderful, wonderful park lands in our state, and we're very grateful to the artists.

- PHOTOGRAPHER: On three.

Look right here.

One, two, and three.

- I'm excited about it.

I'm anxious to see the book and anxious to begin to have this exhibition travel around the state.

[gentle music] [hammer thudding] - Our team is installing the Art of Texas State Parks.

We're thrilled to be helping TPW celebrate the centennial of the park system.

And we get to kick off the exhibition here at the Bullock Museum.

- DAVID: I know it's going to the Bullock, the Museum of Natural Science in Houston and other venues, so I'm looking forward to that.

There are so many different kinds of artists and it'll be interesting to see their interpretations.

- FIDENCIO: I hope that it inspires people to explore the state and appreciate all the people that have made it what it is today.

- LINDA: We're so happy that this exhibition now has legs of its own.

[laughs] [gentle music] - I mean, there are so many people.

I barely even made the rounds.

- It's pretty amazing to have it all put together and presented and have the public view it more than anything.

- DAVID: All these great friends and painters, and it's a privilege to be in their company.

- ANDY: This event has far exceeded my expectations.

- Thank you so much.

- The people are excited, the artists are happy, the paintings are beautiful and it's absolutely unbelievable.

[gentle music] - DAVID: Our Texas parks are jewels.

I think it's so important that we respect and honor and protect those lands and try to grow them.

[gentle music] [hawk calls] - We've got a couple of broad-wingeds in the air.

Two close-in turkey vultures.

Around here, close is anything less than a half mile.

[laughing] - Oh, I see it.

- JOHN: Okay.

- BIRD WATCHER: Nice.

- First thing in the morning.

I start out at about 8:00 up at the tower.

And from then until 11:30, I'm watching the skies.

Might be a small group over here in the corner.

One of the delights to me is when I have visitors come up.

Today, I was very fortunate because we had six different people up there.

Most of them were very experienced in Hawk Watch.

I got six in this one group by the Red Top tower.

I've got another five going to the left.

- One of the best things about having John on the tower is that he is a natural teacher.

So whenever we get folks that are come up a little shy, they see people with big binoculars and telescopes looking at the sky.

They wonder what we're doing and why we're having so much fun.

John draws them in, teaches them what they need to know, and usually before they're gone, they are fledgling hawk watchers.

- Over the cloud going left.

Just flying above the level of the clouds going left.

- BIRD WATCHER: The broad-winged is just circling in the thermal and headed up.

- JOHN: Reason I came out here is because I love hawks.

I've been a volunteer now for 14 years.

The Hawk Watch is a citizen science project, and right now there are 250 sites throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

- Are you sure it's not just a young Harris's Hawk?

That's the best I can do.

- JOHN: It's important for us to get as much data as we can and to report that data to places that will share it with the world like eBird.org and Hawkcount.org.

- Look, with your eyes the two closest birds, the right one.

- It's not dark enough.

- Not dark enough?

- Now few people are likely to be interested in hawk watching because it's a process that at times is very, very boring.

But at other times, it's incredibly rewarding.

What you get to see when 60,000 birds go by you in a single morning... is unmatched anywhere.

[bright music] - I had a great day because I love Hawk Watch just any time.

And we had all these broad-winged hawks going over and then we had a short-tailed hawk, which is a really rare bird for Texas.

It's coming right overhead.

- Beautiful bird.

- ROY: Hawk migration is a great thing to experience.

It's quite a spectacle.

And I think that it's life changing if you ever get a chance to experience it for yourself.

There's never a bad day out here on the tower.

So come and check it out.

[gentle music] - JEFF: The Middle Trinity River Ecosystem Project is a cluster of wildlife management areas that consists of the Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area, you got the Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area, Big Lake Bottom Wildlife Management Area, and Keechi Creek Wildlife Management Area.

[bird chirping] We are managing wildlife species, wildlife habitats, and they're all open to the public for different forms of recreation.

- We saw over the last handful of years to being able to get out and get into natural places and see wildlife and experience their habitats.

It just shows how important that is to everybody's physical health, their mental health, their spiritual health.

[water splashing] - A Wildlife Management Area is a little different than state parks.

We manage a lot of native ecosystems similar to state parks.

We don't have the heavy infrastructure as far as campgrounds and developed facilities, a little bit more primitive, trying to manage systems a little more natural.

At Gus Engeling WMA, one of our biggest projects there is our post-oak savanna restoration project.

The land, through suppression of fire over the years, it turned into a woodland, it was no longer a savanna.

So we try to do active prescribed fire every two to three years on that landscape.

We did timber thinning to remove trees to open up the canopy, so we get sunlight to the forest floor and then we get grasses and then we start to again restore that savanna.

I did notice the wind's starting to pick up a little bit.

May need to kinda shift around and start making sure all the guys are spraying down wind.

At Richland Creek today, we are managing nuisance plants so if we just walked away, this thing would be taken over by either exotic invasive plants or even native invasive plants.

[engine rumbling] Okay.

Sounds good.

- Alright.

- In order to be a good land manager, you have to read the land.

You have to understand what has happened here in the past and what stage of succession your vegetation community is and where it is moving into the future.

[birds chirping] It comes with experience, it comes with knowledge and it just comes with a natural curiosity of the land and knowing how all the different management practices of the past have shaped where you're at right now.

[grass crunching] - Our wildlife manager areas serve as places to do long-term management and research.

Many of the wildlife habitat improvement projects that we do take many years to come to fruition.

The post oak savanna restoration project at Gus Engeling began in 2006.

So here we are in 2022 still working on that restoration and I hope my great great grandkids will see the benefits of that 100 years from now.

[gentle music] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] [wind blowing, bird calls] - NARRATOR: This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.