The Painter
Terry Dunkum made several attempts at oil painting throughout his life, but life — as it so often does — got in the way. It was only in his retirement years that he was finally able to commit himself fully to the canvas. What emerged was a body of work defined by quiet: the light on a Hill Country field at first sun, the shadow inside the arch of a mission wall, the stillness of a barn at the end of a long day.
Terry studied under Bill Scheidt at Jay Hester's Highland House Studio in San Antonio, sharpening a traditional oil-on-canvas practice rooted in careful observation and honest color. He was drawn to serenity — the exact quality he later said had been missing from the streets he patrolled — and he chased it painting after painting.
The Hill Country
Central Texas is Terry's subject, and the Texas Hill Country is his devotion. Barns, creeks, springs, ranch gates, cedar breaks, and empty roads — the ordinary landscape of the country west and north of San Antonio — turn up again and again in his catalog. So do the San Antonio Missions: San José, San Juan, Espada, Concepción, and the Alamo. He paints them not as monuments but as places, catching a shaft of afternoon light against old stone, a courtyard's quiet after the tour groups have moved on.
Career & Exhibitions
Before he was a painter, Terry served the city of San Antonio as an officer with the San Antonio Police Department. After retiring from SAPD, he turned to art full time. He is a member of The New Braunfels Art League and has exhibited work throughout Central Texas — at local banks, at galleries in the San Antonio area, and at Cactus Jacks in Gruene. His paintings have also traveled outside Texas, with pieces shown in Durango, Colorado.
Available Originals & Giclée Prints
A curated selection of Terry's original oil paintings on canvas is available directly from the gallery — Texas Hill Country landscapes, San Antonio Missions, the River Walk, and mountain and Southwestern scenes. Each original is one-of-a-kind and includes provenance documentation confirming it as an original Terry Dunkum oil on canvas.
For paintings whose originals have found homes, archival giclée prints are available in standard sizes — fine-art reproductions on premium paper, printed with pigment-based inks that resist fading, produced from high-resolution scans of the originals.
To inquire about a specific piece, framing, sizing, or shipping, please get in touch.