Dalhart Windberg (b. 1933), "Hill Country Home", 1969, oil on canvas, 9 x 12" canvas size

Born in Goliad County, Texas, and living in Georgetown, Texas, (2010), Dalhart Windberg is a painter of romantic landscapes inspired by his travels throughout Texas, Mexico, Spain, Greece and European countries. He was named after a popular Country and Western singer, Vernon Dalhart, who was named for the Texas panhandle town of Dalhart where his parents farmed.From childhood, Windberg's mother encouraged his art. He became a student of Texas painter, Simon Michael, who encouraged him to paint whatever strikes his fancy. Serving in the Army in post World War Europe, Windberg was inspired by the landscape and was horrified by its destruction of burned out buildings, "collapsed shells of once great city, and bodies piled up high and deep." (ehow) , and in 1967, quit 'working' as a professional sign painter in order to devote full time to this subject as well as still life through his own artwork. In his fine art, he developed a method of achieving smooth surfaces like the Old Masters by using diluted modeling paste to prepare his grounds or surfaces so that he could get the paint on quickly and with precision. He became a leading artist for American Masters Foundation, a U.S. print publisher.In 1979, he was named Texas State Artist, and many limited edition prints of his work have circulated under his business Windberg Enterprises. He has written an instructional book titled The Windberg Techniques of Oil Painting, and two biographies of him have been written: In the Paths of the Masters, 1978, by Bruce Davis; and Dalhart Windberg, Artist of Texas, 1984 by Jerry Allen Potter.