
A.D. Greer
Born: 25 December 1904 in Pond Creek, Oklahoma Died: February 9, 1998, Austin, Texas. (Came to Texas in 1928, left for Taos, NM in 1959, moved to Austin, TX in 1965.) Medium: Oil painting in still lifes, landscapes, portraits, female nudes, westerns, animals. Also in his youth a painter of church domes. Education: St. John's Military Academy in Salina, KS, Cosmopolitan education, self-taught. Exhibited: Texas Artists Museum, Port Arthur, TX; Woolaroc Musuem, Bartlesville, OK; Allen Art Galleries, HoustonTX; Taos Art Gallery, Taos, NM, American Fine Arts Galleries, Irving, TX; The Country Store, Austin, Tx; Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX: Sherwoods Gallery, Houston, TX. Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Art Exhibition, 2 first place Blue ribbons (Prizes) c. 1979 & 1980. Known listings: "American Artists: Signatures and Monograms 1800-1989", by John Castagno, Scarecrow Press Inc., Lanham, Md., & London, 1990; "American Artists", an illustrated survey of leading contemporary Americans, The Krantz Co. Publishers Inc., 1985; "Artists of Texas", Mountain Productions of Texas Inc, Alto NM, 1986; "Contemporary Western Artists, by Peggy & Harold Samuels, Bonanza Books, Distributed by Crown Publishers, New York, 1985; "Southwest Art" (periodical), by Nancy Glass West, 1977; "Southwest Art" (periodical), by Byron B. Jones, November 1984; "The Southwest Art Review", Krantz Company, Chicago, 1983. "Dictionary of Texas Artists; 1800-1945", Texas A&M University Press, 1999. "Texas Painters, Sculptors & Graphic Artists, A Biographical Dictionary of Artists in Texas before 1942", Woodmont Books, 2000. Professions: Art related - Stage curtain painter, Mural painter, Sign painter, and Commercial artist, Painted domes of churches, Painted signs on water towers and smoke stacks. Other occupations - Sparring partner, boxer, trick gun shooting, dishwasher, ditch digger, ranch hand, mule skinner, flour sacker, boilermaker, harvest & threshing hand, road brick layer, truck driver, gardener, glazer, roofer, cornhusker, steeplejack, lumberjack, miner, pool hustler, music writer, stripe painter in a Ford assembly plant, outhouse builder and hobo. Influenced by: Robert Wood, V.A. Richardson, Jan-Boleslas Czedekowsky, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic E. Church, Russell Flint, Alfred Munnings, and Gutzon Borglum. Highlights: Provided fine art covers for 2 Sears catalogues. Made an Honorary Texas Ranger 1 November 1980, presentation was made by Marian T. Keyes. "Cattle Country" was purchased by L.B.J. and exhibited at the White House during his presidency. Provided art for the Calendars for Best Printing Company, 1988, 1992, and 1998. Played the accordion, which helped keep his fingers limber. Commission work for: Charles Limberg, Will Rogers, Gov. Allan Shivers, Michael Halbouty and Frank Irwin. Greer first came to Texas in 1928 looking for Gutzon Borglum (the artist who sculptured the presidents at Mount Rushmore).