B. B. Barrick

Remnants of rural America are the principle focus of paintings by Bill Barrick. He is recognized around Texas and the nation as a leading chronicler of life in the developing Southwest. Much of his work pays tribute to early settlers who broke untamed prairies and established the roots from which sprang the villages, towns, and industry that lead to our contemporary culture. His ability to capture on canvas the spirit of rural America with its stark beauty, hardship, and simple joys, is the driving force and appeal of art. You won’t see any cowboys or Indians in Barrick’s paintings, because he feels that despite their great prominence in television and movies and art, they were not the ones who really established the permanent foundation on which the modern Southwest was born. To the contrary, Barrick contends that the credit should go to the farmer, and he says, “I disagree with the idea that the cowboy was the main instrument in the development of the West and Southwest. I think agriculture and farmers did more that anyone, because they were the people who settled down and established something.” A native of High Plains, Bill was raised on the family farm near Abernathy. With a degree from West Texas State University and additional study at Texas Tech and North Texas State, he taught high school art in Tulia for two years, and in Grand Prairie for another two years before becoming completely disillusioned with teaching. He moved his family to Austin, where he took a job in a gallery that allowed him to paint on the job. Less than two years after that, he made the decision to devote himself to painting full-time. Today, Bill and Marty Barrick, along with their sons Jeff and Cody, make their home in Cedar Park, near Austin.