Dwight Holmes

(American, B. 1900 - 1986)

 

Dwight Holmes was born in Albany, Oregon in 1900.  At a young age, he moved to Texas.  His formal art training began at Galveston high school, followed by a 5-year study at Texas Christian University where he served as the art editor of the College Annual.  After receiving  his certificate of Art and Bachelor of Arts Degree, he became a faculty member in the Art Department.  Eventually, Holmes would leave Texas Christian University to pursue a 5-year apprenticeship to achieve membership in Modelers and Sculptors of America.  After studying with George Franz of Germany and Michael Lengyl of Austria, he would spend over 40 years working on ornamental architectural sculpture.  However, he did not limit himself to ornamental architecture.  He also spent his time working with ceramics, restoring, painting, designing, carving, gold-leafing and sculpting.

 

Holmes has been winning art awards since the age of thirteen.  Since then, he has won many other honors and awards.  He can paint any subject in any medium, but he prefers to paint landscapes in oils.  He has painted the alluring phases of Lake Como, Fort Worth, sketching the willow trees against the water, the gnarled live oak trees, the scarlet and russet Autumn.  He has also painted countless other colorful compositions of Texas, Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, California, Tennessee, Georgia, the Great Smokies, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, Red Rock Country, and Hawaii. 

 

For the past ten years, Dwight Holmes has been connected with C.J. Sutton Company of Fort Worth and the Southern Plastic Relief Company of Dallas as a modeler.  He has ornamented buildings all over the Southwest, from forty-story hotels to one-story Spanish style homes.  In 1929, Holmes received a commission to paint the murals for the Main Lounge of the Jockey Club at the Arlington Downs.  These murals cover sixty yards of canvas, depicting the history of the W.T. Waggoner family for the past fifty years, which in reality parallels the industrial development of West Texas.