Forrest in his studio
Forrest Kirkland,
made his living as an illustrator in Dallas, Texas from about 1922 - 1945.
Although his bread and butter was retouching photos of machinery, he did
various illustrations for many different publications and companies of
the region.
At work at the walls
Texas landscape, c 1925, oil.
As a hobby he started sketching the cave paintings
around Texas and New Mexico areas on family outings. He believed that the
existing Indian art works were being vandalized rapidly and so started a
campaign to at least make copies for posterity. He went out frequently
even with two small children and his wife, Sadie (Hollaway). Often he would have to
stand up to his chest in water to be able to observe the paintings inside
of the caves. He also was a member of a Dallas poetry society and an active
member in the Dallas arts community in various capacities.
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KIRKLAND, OLEA FORREST (1892-1942).
Olea Forrest Kirkland, artist, was born near Mist, Arkansas, on
November 24, 1892. He attended Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas,
for a year. After attending commercial art school in Battle Creek,
Michigan, he was drafted into the military service during World
War I. He was discharged in 1919, after serving in France, and settled
in Dallas, where he was employed by an engraving firm. In 1925
he established an advertising-art studio that specialized in drawings
of industrial machinery for catalogue illustrations.
Kirkland had begun to paint with watercolors while
in the army and continued to paint landscapes and scenes of Dallas
slums whenever time permitted. In 1932 he became interested in
paleontology and was soon an avid fossil collector. On collecting
trips he often found Indian artifacts as well as fossils, and
archeology became his paramount interest. In 1933 he was introduced
to Indian rock art when he visited the Paint Rock site on the Concho River. He returned the following summer to
make exact scale copies in color of these pictographs. Over the
next eight years he copied rock art at more than eighty sites.
The 160 watercolor copies of rock art that Kirkland painted were
reproduced in 1967 in The Rock Art of Texas Indians (with
text by W. W. Newcomb, Jr.). The originals are in the collection
of the Texas Memorial Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, where most of Kirkland's
watercolor landscape paintings are also housed. Kirkland also
wrote papers on rock art, including a number of articles for the
Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society.
Kirkland was a founder and president of the Dallas
Archeological Society, a director of the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society, a regional vice president of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological
Society (later the Texas Archeological Society),
and a fellow of the Texas Academy of Science. He died on April 2, 1942, after a heart attack. He was survived
by his wife, Lula (Mardis), and a son and daughter by a previous
marriage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: William W. Newcomb, "Forrest Kirkland's
Paintings of Texas Indian Pictographs," Texas Quarterly
6 (Autumn 1963). William W. Newcomb, The Rock Art of Texas
Indians (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967). Vertical
Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Forrest's son, Roy, and daughter, Violet, painting about 1922
now the art?
Forrest Kirkland, made his living as an illustrator in Dallas, Texas from about 1922 - 1945. Although his bread and butter was retouching photos of machinery, he did various illustrations for many different publications and companies of the region. |
At work at the walls |
|
.
KIRKLAND, OLEA FORREST (1892-1942).
Olea Forrest Kirkland, artist, was born near Mist, Arkansas, on
November 24, 1892. He attended Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas,
for a year. After attending commercial art school in Battle Creek,
Michigan, he was drafted into the military service during World
War I. He was discharged in 1919, after serving in France, and settled
in Dallas, where he was employed by an engraving firm. In 1925
he established an advertising-art studio that specialized in drawings
of industrial machinery for catalogue illustrations.
Kirkland had begun to paint with watercolors while
in the army and continued to paint landscapes and scenes of Dallas
slums whenever time permitted. In 1932 he became interested in
paleontology and was soon an avid fossil collector. On collecting
trips he often found Indian artifacts as well as fossils, and
archeology became his paramount interest. In 1933 he was introduced
to Indian rock art when he visited the Paint Rock site on the Concho River. He returned the following summer to
make exact scale copies in color of these pictographs. Over the
next eight years he copied rock art at more than eighty sites.
The 160 watercolor copies of rock art that Kirkland painted were
reproduced in 1967 in The Rock Art of Texas Indians (with
text by W. W. Newcomb, Jr.). The originals are in the collection
of the Texas Memorial Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, where most of Kirkland's
watercolor landscape paintings are also housed. Kirkland also
wrote papers on rock art, including a number of articles for the
Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society.
Kirkland was a founder and president of the Dallas
Archeological Society, a director of the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society, a regional vice president of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological
Society (later the Texas Archeological Society),
and a fellow of the Texas Academy of Science. He died on April 2, 1942, after a heart attack. He was survived
by his wife, Lula (Mardis), and a son and daughter by a previous
marriage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: William W. Newcomb, "Forrest Kirkland's
Paintings of Texas Indian Pictographs," Texas Quarterly
6 (Autumn 1963). William W. Newcomb, The Rock Art of Texas
Indians (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967). Vertical
Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
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