Local artist exhibits more than 70 pieces at Fine Art Museum

Don Breeden, a local artist who has been doing the Charro Days posters for more than 20 years, recently opened his exhibit at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art where more than 70 pieces ranging from nature to Mexican traditions are on display for the community.

Breeden said he has been an artist for as long as he can remember and hopes to continue doing so for many more years to come. He said he finds his inspiration mostly on nature.

“Since I do a lot of nature, wildlife artwork, I’ve been hunting and fishing and being out in el monte , so to speak, for as long as I can remember so almost every one of my pieces represents something that I’ve seen. It all relates back to nature somehow,” he said.

The artist said he has over 600 editions of his prints and the pieces exhibited at the museum are part of that group. They range from several years ago up to this year.

“There is a lot of originals here too, limited edition, so these have been made over the last several years. Some this past year, some years ago, so it is a combination of both because I have so many,” he said.

“All my life, as long as I can remember I’ve been painting. I was never any good at it but I’ve been painting.”

Artist Don Breedon hangs his paintings Monday in his current exhibition “Through My Eyes The Art of Don Breeden” currently on exhbit at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)

A lot of his inspiraton for some pieces Breeden said comes from the Mexican traditions in the area such as Día de Muertos. At the exhibit there are two original prints of his Charro Days posters.

“Two of them especifically that were the models for Charro Days posters … and those are probably the only two originals I have left of all my Charro Days posters, I’ve done 21 different Charro Days posters so I’ve sold all the other ones,” he said.

“A lot of these, like the muerte series, are all related around Charro Days and all the festivities, I get a lot of inspiration from Dia de los Muertos, there are some based on those traditions, I get a lot of inspiration based on that as well, especially for the Charro Days posters. ”

When asked for advice for aspiring artists, Breeden said the most important part is to start and to practice as much as they can. He said he usually paints every night several pieces at a time to not get bored.

“To anybody that is aspiring to be an artist, because I get a lot of people that tell me ‘I can’t even draw a stick figure, I can’t draw a straight line’ well, you don’t need to, you have to practice and everybody can learn how to draw and everybody can learn how to paint, there are varying levels, but I would encourage all of those who want to draw and want to paint to do it because it is a lot of hand and eye coordination and it’s a matter of doing it, it helps to get some instruction,” he said.

Nellie Garcia, interim president at the museum, said it was about time the museum exhibited the work of Breeden. She said this is a special time at the museum because every wall has an exhibit including Calle Calaveras and the Resaca exhibit.

“I think this exhibit is absolutely excellent, Don Breeden has served on our board and he is our local painter, very well-known, and I think it was about time that we exhibit his work,” she said.

“It’s just amazing the work that he does through his art and people love to have his art at home, too. It’s time to show off a person who has such talent here in Brownsville.”

Garcia said she invites the community to attend the exhibits and support the arts. The exhibit will run until Jan. 2021.

“We know that a lot of non-profits are struggling, like we are, and we are thinking on how we can improve or increase our revenues so that we can maintain our museum open for the community,” she said.

“I urge the community to come and see all that we have.”

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