Breckenridge Fine Arts Center

09/05/2026

🐴 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MARIE GRAY

HONORABLE MENTION
🏆 Curaidh
Marie Gray • Waxahachie, TX
Oil • 23 × 27 • $3,400

“My goal is not to tell the whole story, but to leave a little intrigue and mystery.”

For artist Marie Gray, painting is about more than capturing the appearance of her subjects. It's about capturing their spirit, emotion, and story—and leaving just enough unsaid for the viewer to become part of that story.

A lifelong artist, Marie developed her fascination with portraiture and equestrian art as a young student. She earned her BFA in Painting from Midwestern State University, with a secondary focus in ceramics, and began her full-time art career in 2013.

Today, Marie is known for her expressive equestrian and portrait paintings, working in oils, acrylics, watercolor, pastels, charcoal, graphite, and other media. Her large representational works often feature vibrant color and simplified backgrounds that draw the viewer's attention directly to the mood and personality of her subject.

Her work is deeply personal. Marie describes art as a way of expressing the emotions she experiences in her pursuit of a deeper relationship with her Creator.

Her oil painting Curaidh was selected by juror Barbara Hack to receive an Honorable Mention in the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center's 34th Annual Juried Art Show.

Come see Curaidh and the many other remarkable works in this year's exhibition. You may discover that the story you see in the painting isn't quite the same story someone else sees—and that's part of the magic.

🎨 34th Annual Juried Art Show
📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
📅 July 21–September 26, 2026

09/04/2026

🎨 YOUNG ART MASTERS — FALL 2026

What can young artists learn from the great masters?

Quite a lot! This fall, Young Art Masters will step into the world of famous painters, exploring their artwork, discovering their techniques, and learning how those techniques can inspire their own creativity.

Each class will include gallery walks, art exploration, and hands-on projects inspired by the masters—including artists such as Henri Rousseau and James Whistler.

🎨 Fall Classes $20 per class
📅 October 3
📅 October 17
📅 November 14
⏰ 10:00 AM–12:30 PM
🎒 Grades 1–5
👩‍🎨 Limited to 15 students per class

Each class is registered for separately. Link to registration: https://form.jotform.com/262464599288173

Young artists will learn to slow down, really look at art, discover the techniques behind the paintings, and then make those ideas their own.

📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
207 N. Breckenridge Ave.
Breckenridge, TX

Space is limited to 15 students per class!

Give your young artist an opportunity to explore art history, experiment with new techniques, and discover what happens when the masters become their teachers. 🎨

09/03/2026

We are still feeling incredibly honored by this recognition! ❤️
Thank you to the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce for naming the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center its September Business of the Month and for highlighting the many people who make BFAC such a special part of our community.
If you missed yesterday's surprise, here's the Chamber's post today.
We are so grateful for the continued support of our artists, students, teachers, docents, volunteers, board, donors, sponsors, and the entire Breckenridge and Stephens County community.
Thank you for believing in the Fine Arts Center! 🎨❤️

🎉 Congratulations to our September Business of the Month, the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center! 🎨

Dedicated on April 20, 1985, as a gift to the citizens of Breckenridge and Stephens County from Virginia and Lester Clark, the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center has enriched our community through the arts for more than 40 years. The Center offers rotating exhibits featuring local and regional artists, juried exhibitions, receptions, children’s programs, summer camps, and classes in painting, ceramics, photography, jewelry making, and more.

Its mission is to make creativity accessible to everyone while providing a welcoming place for artists and community members to create, learn, connect, and grow. The community is invited to attend an artist reception on Saturday, September 26, from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m., celebrating the closing of the annual Juried Show and the opening of an exhibition featuring talented portrait artist Barbara Hack.

Community members can support the Center by attending exhibits and events, taking classes, volunteering, donating, sponsoring programs, or simply helping spread the word. Every visit and contribution helps the Fine Arts Center continue serving as a treasured gathering place for Breckenridge and Stephens County.

09/03/2026

🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: KATHLEEN CUNNING
DOYLENE LAND AWARD — 3RD PLACE

🏆 The Orange Lock
Kathleen Cunning • Weatherford, TX
Watercolor • 24 × 26 • $450

“Watercolor is magic to me.”

For artist Kathleen Cunning, the magic is in the details.
A retired high school art teacher, Kathleen is drawn to the things that make ordinary objects extraordinary—the shine of metal, the texture of weathered surfaces, the contrast between rust and color, and the stories that seem to live in well-worn places. There is something wonderfully unexpected about finding beauty in grime, rust, and an old lock. And that's part of the magic Kathleen sees in watercolor.

Her work was selected by juror Barbara Hack to receive the Doylene Land Award — 3rd Place in the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center's 34th Annual Juried Art Show.
Come see The Orange Lock and more than 90 other juried works at the BFAC through September 26.

📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
🎨 34th Annual Juried Art Show
📅 July 21–September 26, 2026

09/03/2026

🔨 MAKE SOMETHING YOU’LL ACTUALLY WANT TO WEAR.

Have you ever looked at a piece of handcrafted jewelry and thought, “I’d love to know how to make something like that…”?

Now you can. 🤠

Join Russell Marley of E.S. Marley Jewelry for a hands-on jewelry-making workshop at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center!

Russell will introduce you to the basics of working with metal as you shape, texture, and stamp your own pieces—and you'll leave with something YOU made and can actually wear.

CHOOSE YOUR PROJECT:
🤎 Copper Belt Buckle — $45
🤎 Copper Cuff + Copper Earrings — $55
✨ Copper Cuff + Silver Earrings — $105

Your class fee includes all materials!
And yes—you take your finished pieces home with you.

Saturday, October 10
🕘 9:00–11:00 AM
📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
207 N. Breckenridge Ave.
Breckenridge, TX

No experience necessary! Whether you're completely new to jewelry making or already love working with your hands, Russell will guide you through the process.

Ages 13+ | Limited to 15 students

This would make a fantastic girls' day, mother/daughter outing, date morning, or just a chance to learn something completely different. And let's be honest…you can't buy the experience of saying, “Yep. I made this.” 😉

👉 Choose your project when you register.

Registration link: https://form.jotform.com/262455192308054

Follow .s.marleyjewelry to see more of Russell's handmade work.

09/02/2026

Yesterday, the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center received a surprise that truly touched my heart—we were named Business of the Month by the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce!

To say I’m honored is an understatement.

But this recognition belongs to so many more people than the person who happens to have “Director” on her title.

The Breckenridge Fine Arts Center is a little jewel in our community because of the people who pour their time, talent, creativity, and heart into it every single day.

To our artists, who share their work and their stories with us…

To our students, young and old, who remind us why the arts matter…

To our wonderful teachers and instructors, who generously share their knowledge and encourage others to create…

To our docents and volunteers, who welcome visitors, keep things running, and give so much of themselves…

To our board members, who believe in the mission of the Fine Arts Center and work behind the scenes to keep it moving forward…

To our donors, sponsors, and community partners, whose generosity makes so much of what we do possible…

And especially to the Clark family, whose vision and generosity helped create the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center from the beginning. Their continued involvement and support are a beautiful reminder of where this special place began—and how fortunate we are that they are still such an important part of its story.

And to everyone who walks through our doors, attends a class, comes to a reception, brings a child to an art camp, admires an exhibit, buys a piece of art, or simply tells someone else about the Fine Arts Center—

Thank you.

You are the reason the BFAC is more than a building with beautiful art on the walls. You are what makes it a gathering place, a creative space, and a special part of our community.

I am incredibly grateful to be a small part of it.

And thank you to the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce for this wonderful recognition and for believing in the value of the arts in our community. What an honor! ❤️🎨

Here’s to continuing to make the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center a place where art, creativity, and community come together.

09/01/2026

🌿 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: JOHN THOMASSON 🌿

LESTER & VIRGINIA CLARK MEMORIAL AWARD

🏆 Water Log
John Thomasson • Lubbock, TX
Oil • 14 × 18 • $1,200

There is something about a quiet stretch of water that makes us feel calm.
In Water Log, artist John Thomasson captures one of those peaceful moments—a weathered fallen tree reaching across the water, sunlight filtering through the trees, and reflections moving across the surface.

This beautiful work was selected by juror Barbara Hack to receive the Lester & Virginia Clark Memorial Award, honoring the legacy of the Clark family and the generosity that helped make the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center possible.

Come experience Water Log and more than 90 other works in our 34th Annual Juried Art Show, on display through September 26.

📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
📅 July 21–September 26, 2026

08/28/2026

🎨 Is your painting ever “almost right”…but you can’t figure out what’s missing?

That’s exactly what we’re hoping to help with during Painting Essentials: Composition, Value & Color with artist Steve Miller.

📅 September 19
🕣 8:30 AM–4:30 PM
💲 $145
🎨 Intermediate artists
👥 Limited to 15 participants

You’ll work through value and composition studies and then apply those concepts to your own small landscape painting.

Bring your usual painting supplies—and we’ve posted the complete supply list on our website.

Registration closes September 5.

https://breckenridgefineart.org/events

08/27/2026

🍋 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: JUDI SIMON 🍋

BRECKENRIDGE FINE ARTS CENTER AWARD
🏆 Old Fashioned Lemon Pie
Judi Simon • Hewitt, TX
Oil • 15 × 18 • $1,250

Some paintings catch your eye.

Others make you remember something.

For artist Judi Simon, Old Fashioned Lemon Pie is a tribute to her mother—and to the kind of love that could be found in the simplest things.

“My mother's lemon pie was always the best because it was made with real butter, fresh eggs, freshly squeezed lemons, sugar and a lot of love.”

That last ingredient may be the most important one. ❤️

Judi’s beautifully rendered still life captures not only the ingredients of a beloved family recipe, but the feeling behind it: a kitchen, a memory, and something made by hand for the people you love.

The Breckenridge Fine Arts Center Award recognizes this exceptional work and the contribution it makes to our 34th Annual Juried Art Show.

Judi Simon is a professional illustrator, graphic designer, and medical/representational artist whose career spans more than 40 years. Since retiring from commercial art and illustration, she has devoted herself to fine art, working in oil and watercolor across still life, landscape, and portraiture.

Come see Old Fashioned Lemon Pie and the rest of this remarkable exhibition in person at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center.

Because sometimes the story behind a painting is every bit as beautiful as the painting itself.

🎨 34th Annual Juried Art Show
📍 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center
📅 July 21–September 26, 2026

08/26/2026

🎨 So, what will you actually get out of the Painting Essentials workshop?

We've had a few questions about our upcoming workshop with artist Steve Miller, so we thought we'd explain a little more about what to expect!

This isn't simply a day of watching someone else paint. You'll be working, too.

Steve will spend the day helping intermediate artists strengthen three fundamentals that affect almost every painting:

🖌️ COMPOSITION — How do you decide what belongs in the painting and what doesn't?

⬛ VALUE — How do you establish the lights and darks that create depth, form, and a strong focal point?

🎨 COLOR — How can a limited palette help create a more cohesive and successful painting?

You'll begin with quick grayscale value studies to work through composition and value before applying those ideas to a small landscape painting of your own.

The goal is to leave with more than one painting. You'll leave with a better understanding of the decisions that make a painting work—and practical concepts you can carry into your future paintings.

What do I need to bring?

Bring your usual painting/art supplies, brushes, a tabletop or plein air easel, and a 9" × 12" canvas or panel. You'll also want a simple landscape reference photo and a sack lunch.

Steve will provide the grayscale markers and paper for the value studies.

We've put the complete supply recommendations and workshop details on our website so you can see exactly what you'll need before registering.

📅 Saturday, September 19
🕣 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
💲 $145 per artist
🎨 Intermediate artists
👥 Limited to 15 participants

Registration deadline: September 5

👉 Visit the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center website for complete details and registration: https://breckenridgefineart.org/events

If you've been painting for a while and want to better understand why a painting works—or why it sometimes doesn't—this is the kind of day that can make a real difference in your work.

We'd love to have you join us!