- ANNOUNCER: 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.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - The cove is my favorite place on this kayak trail because it's just so peaceful.

- Anybody who doesn't believe that the populace of San Antonio knows about its water supply is not paying attention.

- This is not only a fabulous exhibition of landscape paintings, but it's also a historical record.

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

[soft guitar music] - DAVE: This morning we're gonna launch.

- Woo, it's cold.

- DAVE: Take a look at the trees and see if we can find some blue herons.

[water splashing] - LIANE: Pardon me.

Coming in, ducklings.

- DAVE: Sun is just starting to peek out from the trees there.

We have about six miles that we can paddle on here, and since it's a lake, you can make it as long or as short as you want.

This time of the morning, it is so comfortable out here.

There goes, yep, blue heron right there.

- KATHERINE: Lake Ray Hubbard's been in my backyard for almost 30 years now, so I grew up on this lake.

A lot of people from Dallas, a lot of people from the Fort Worth area come over here.

A lot of people travel over an hour just to come to this spot.

- We're gonna paddle north past the railroad bridge.

Over the years, I've had a chance to paddle all over North and South America, but the most fun now is paddling with my daughters right here.

- KATHERINE: Isn't it so pretty?

- DAVE: Boy, the breeze is great, this time in the morning.

[soft jazzy music] We're gonna paddle up to where the old Main Street that used to run through Rowlett is, and the lake has submerged a portion of it.

So this is Main Street Rowlett.

It's great for families.

It's an economical way to get started and spend a day out here with nature.

- KATHERINE: Back into the wilderness we go guys.

- Y'all better slow down for the old guy.

[everyone chuckles] Is this your cove, Katherine?

- KATHERINE: The cove is my favorite place on this specific kayak trail because it's just so peaceful and it's calm.

- DAVE: If you're paddling along the lake and you get tired, this is a great place to come in and take a break, slow down and just observe.

[insects chirping] [birds singing] - It feels pretty, like, mythical out here.

- KATHERINE: Isn't it so pretty.

- So I really enjoy being out in nature just because I enjoy seeing the wildlife.

It's definitely a way to get outside of your comfort zone.

I am glad you guys have shown me this area.

And de-stress out on an open lake.

- DAVE: We probably should head back.

One of my favorite things about kayaking out here is it's very relaxing.

- KATHERINE: Going out there and just being able to sit in peace and quiet, I do enjoy that, especially after a long day.

You'd be surprised.

[soft guitar music] [wind blowing] [ominous music] - REPORTER: So far, we've had a record nine days of 105 degree heat.

[TV static buzzing] - In fact, we are in the worst drought condition in the southern United States.

[TV static buzzing] - REPORTER: In the late '80s, there was a growing concern that the Edwards Aquifer would not be able to serve the rapidly growing San Antonio area.

[TV static buzzing] - The drought is draining our source of life.

[TV static buzzing] - So many communities and industries depend upon the water that goes into the Edwards Aquifer to help sustain their livelihoods.

- And then we've got the 600-pound gorilla because San Antonio is sucking everything dry, you knokw.

So the question was, how do we sustain water security for San Antonio into the future?

[water gurgling] [upbeat music] But ultimately what we came down with was you have to protect the recharge zone, and that's the way you protect the water resource for the future.

[water rushing] [washer tumbling] - The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is really a model for how you can protect a very important natural resource next to an urban environment.

The concept behind it was ingenious.

The city of San Antonio and many partners, including The Nature Conservancy, went to the voters with the idea of taking sales tax and allocating it toward protection of land over the Edwards aquifer, so that ultimately you'd be protecting the primary drinking water source for San Antonio.

- CARTER: One of the conservation goals of a 1/8th cent sales tax in San Antonio.

- City of San Antonio really led the way in going to the voters and saying, "Will you tax yourselves to protect the land, the water, the habitat, all the things we love about the Hill Country?"

And the voters said, "Heck, yes," time and time and time and time again.

[upbeat music] - Anybody who doesn't believe that the populace of San Antonio knows about its water supplies is not paying attention, because San Antonio, they know where their water comes from.

- Because they hear about it every night on the news.

- Aquifer.

- Aquifer.

- Aquifer.

- Aquifer.

- Sure enough, there was a high literacy in San Antonio about where their water came from.

[upbeat music] - SUSAN: The public loved it, and they made some strategic purchases.

- ROBERT: We really targeted buying conservation easements, 'cause you could get more land protected with conservation easements.

- You never know for certain if this thing is gonna take off.

But ultimately, it did.

Since its inception, over 171,000 acres have been protected and the city's collected over $315 million towards this effort over this 20-year period.

- But it is a tremendous success story.

It's one of the two or three most important conservation achievements during my career that I've seen happen.

- And that was very difficult, because the people in that part of the country are so skeptical of conservationists, and environmentalists, and government people.

[relaxing music] - ROBERT: But when it comes to water, people get it.

It's very visceral.

It's very organic connection we all have with water.

[relaxing music] - CAROL: It was remarkable, remarkable thing to see done.

And that has taken a long time.

- I really believe that we're going to continue on with aquifer protection and I think it will be expanded.

I think it has to, if we're going to live on our little planet.

♪ ♪ [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] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing, frogs croaking] [birds singing, frogs croaking] [birds singing, frogs croaking] [birds singing] [birds singing] [birds singing, frogs croaking] 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.