Above: Untitled home in landscape by Texas Artist Kelly Fearing.

Texas Wesleyan students uncovered new, never-seen-before works of art on the Texas Wesleyan campus last fall.

Under the direction of Kit Hall, professor of art, the students documented the University's fine art collection and created a website where, for the first time, the entire permanent collection can be viewed and studied.

Visit the website: TxWesFineArt.com

Works recently discovered include artwork by European artists Salvador Dali, George Rouault and Marc Chagall and Texas artists Kelly Fearing, Blanche McVeigh and Bror Utter. 

Famous works unearthed on campus

With the assistance of a survey sent out to faculty and staff last fall, the class found some previously identified works and made new discoveries. Visiting Texas Wesleyan's archives was eye opening as students 'unearthed' works of art never seen by the Wesleyan community. One of the favorite paintings was one by the artist Ray C. Strang — a western artist and illustrator of Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Harpers.  

Students found a watercolor, 'Warpaths of Steel', by artist Bo Powell. Powell was a DJ, train conductor, trucker, racecar driver and chuckwagon cook, and has been credited with helping to jumpstart Willie Nelson's career. 

Discoveries about Wesleyan history

In learning about Wesleyan's permanent collection students learned about the history of Wesleyan.  A portrait of Dean Walter Glick by Emily Guthrie Smith led to an article in the Rambler dated 1959 in which the artist presented it to Texas Wesleyan and announced a student art exhibition. Students learned anecdotally that a painting by past Art Professor Mary Apple housed in the West Library was a caricature of a former administrator. 

"In doing this project the students learned a history of art as well the technical and practical sides of art," Hall said. "In other words they were exposed to an all-around appreciation of art."