east texas art

Pine Curtain Art: Texas Forestry Museum

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“Southern Newsprint,” by Stephanie Khattak

The Texas Forestry Museum invited me to contribute a piece to auction in its annual Feast in the Forest fundraiser. While the end sale would be an original piece, the museum worked with me in a similar process as a commission, providing a few photo options to work from for the end result. This piece is from one of their archival photos, and I chose it to work with because I loved how it set the scene and really brought back a sense of time and place. For my process, I have to prioritize which elements of a photo I want to emphasize on the print and for this one, I wanted to make sure to capture the railroad tracks, the water tower and the smoke coming from the building on the far right. While I knew I wouldn’t be able to capture the detail in every letter on the water tower, I loved the stylized first letters and wanted to retain those. In the original, many of these elements were further enhanced with iridescent and metallic paint.

This project captured all of my favorite things about working on commissions, and it was nice to be able to contribute a piece to an organization that is so important and shares my passion for capturing and preserving the rich history of this part of East Texas.

This was a unique piece, but the Texas Forestry Museum is also a retail partner, so please get in touch with them if you’d like to see another option in their inventory.

Contact me if you’re interested in initiating a commissioned project of your own! If you’re thinking of one for the holidays, its best to get in the pipeline by Oct. 1.

Updates from the Pine Curtain!

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Example of framed East Texas History wall art.
“Logging Crew,” by Stephanie Khattak. Acrylic Monotype, 8X10 on paper.

A few months ago, the Texas Forestry Museum in Lufkin contacted me about providing a limited-edition of hand-embellished reproductions from my “Logging Crew” print for its gift shop! This is really exciting, because not only is the Forestry Museum a really solid East Texas history and cultural center, it’s also in my hometown and I have many happy memories of visiting it over the years.

If you are local in East Texas, I encourage you to go in and visit the museum’s newly updated space! If you’re not local, or not quite up to in-person visits, drop them a line for more information.

This wonderful collaboration kicks off my wholesale art program. If there’s a local museum gift shop, CVB or specialty retailer with a strong local focus where you would love to purchase my work, please tell them about me! I don’t sell reproductions of my work directly, so this program is a really great way for customers to purchase the pieces they like and support independent, local businesses at the same time.

This art is professionally reproduced on BFK Rives fine art quality paper, and each one is hand-embellished, making it a piece of truly unique East Texas art for sale. They’re sold unframed, so that you can display them to perfectly fit your taste and decor.