ROCKPORT
TEXAS

The Art of Thom Evans

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 Sometimes it seems that all of Texas concentrates here. Land meets sea. Prickly pear and mesquite cluster beneath great live oaks. Wind bends them. A history of wild tribes, intrepid explorers, conniving pirates, hardy pioneers and dedicated revolutionaries segues to a new era: ardent environmentalists, inspired artists. As this painting by Thom Evans suggests, there was even a time when the great romances of America—cattle and shipping—met here and became one.

This painting illustrates the first attempt to ship cattle out of
south Texas in the 1870s. The port was at a place known as the
"Rocky Point".
This place is now Rockport, Texas.

"The Last to Load" by Thom Evans

"ARANSAS OAKS"
30x40 oil

Aransas County, the home of fortunate retirees and hard-scrabble fishermen, is by any definition a blessed sanctuary. Somehow, it has evaded the rampant development that elsewhere has resulted in diminishing returns.

George Fulton’s 1877 mansion still towers beside the bay, impressing tourists who amble through its spacious rooms. The Rockport Center for the Arts occupies another Victorian home on the bayfront. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge delights tourists worldwide and protects a slowly-growing gathering of endangered whooping cranes that winter there.

Tourist jet skiers circle Rockport rookeries crowded with roseate spoonbills, tri-color herons and great blues. The human and bird life pay little attention to each other, and perhaps that is as it should be. Aransas embraces all.

To learn more about Aransas, see the new narrative history by former Pulitzer nominee William Allen and resident historian Sue Hastings Taylor. ARANSAS: The Life of a Texas Coastal County, published by Eakin Press, Austin TX, is available locally, through book stores nationwide, and on the Internet.

July 4th is ART FEST time in Rockport
Click for info

The Fulton Mansion

The Lydia Ann Light House. This was the gateway, in the 1860's from the Gulf of Mexico, at Port Aransas, to the port of Rockport.

The Rockport Center for the Arts

The Texas Maritime Museum
By the Rockport Harbor

ARANSAS
The Life of a 
Texas Coastal County
To Order from Eakin Press

eakinpub@sig.net

All rights reserved. e studio, thomevans art and 
Silver N Tint