American Plains Artists | October 16, 2025-January 5, 2026 |Corsicana, TX

The Plains Life

American Plains Artists celebrates its 40th Annual Juried Show this October.

By Alyssa M. Tidwell

Founded in 1982 as a small group of artists who came together to celebrate the American Plains region, the American Plains Artists (APA) has grown into a prominent non-profit organization with a continuously growing membership of award-winning artists. This fall, APA will host its 40th Annual Juried Exhibit, featuring top-notch original artworks depicting the American Great Plains region. From people to landscapes to wildlife, artists in the exhibition capture the plains way of life, both historic and modern.

Brenda Morgan, The Strong Survive, oil, 10 x 20 in.

Among the artists represented in the show is Brenda Morgan, who brings several wildlife paintings, as well as a cowboy on horseback. Her oil The Strong Survive depicts two bison and their offspring. “I came across this bison family unit while visiting the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in Canton, Kansas. The refuge does important work in promoting prairie stewardship and offers refuge to some 200 bison and 45 elk,” Morgan explains. “I’ve always been inspired by the comeback story of the American bison. From herds in the range of 60 million roaming the plains in the 19th century, they were hunted to near extinction. Last I heard, today, there are approximately 30,000 in conservation herds and nearly 400,000 raised as livestock. That is quite a survival story.” She explains that while there were no storm clouds in the sky when she visited the refuge that day, she felt compelled to add them into the composition. “The face of the bull is strong and resolute as the wind blows his beard,” she says. “The calf doesn’t seem to notice the storm, confident his mother will shield him. They will survive this storm as they always have.”

Mary Lou Pape, She Waits, oil, 36 x 24 in.

Carol Ann Welch, Spring Training, oil, 24 x 30 in.

In a portrait by Mary Lou Pape titled She Waits, a Lakota woman waits for the return of her loved one. “She stands near a cottonwood tree, which her people valued as sacred and considered the ‘tree of life,’” says Pape. “I imagined how difficult it was for the women in the camp who waited and watched with no way of knowing if their family members would return until they saw the riders approaching.”

Other artists in the show include Lou Sanders Albright, Theresa Otteson, Carol Ann Welch and more. The 40th Annual Juried Exhibitruns from October 16 to January 5, 2026, at Pearce Museum at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. An opening reception will be held Thursday, October 16. —