Artist captures local history in creations

Roosevelt County's Gayle Walker is an artist - and a good one - but I think you'd have to call her a local historian as well.

Most years for nearly a decade now, she selects one of the small rural communities that dot our county, and puts in hours of research on its history, including interviews with current and former residents.

Then she retreats into the well house-turned-studio that sits behind her family's farmhouse near Arch and transforms her findings into an oil painting depicting a memorable scene in that community.

In turn, each of those canvases is reproduced on the annual wall calendars for the customers of the Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative.

The 2020 calendar picture is well under way in Walker's studio.

Brushstroke by brushstroke, the Rogers school is returning to life on Walker's canvas.

The cream-colored building on NM 235 in east-central Roosevelt County has been empty since 1957 when the school consolidated with Dora.

"Community stories are irreplaceable to me," Walker said. "I can't put them all in the painting, but I remember them."

The actual painting process usually takes about three weeks, she said, but "the research, talking to people, that takes a lot longer."

She loves every minute of it.

"People are really, really friendly," she said. "Everyone is so proud of their community."

Her current work-in-progress began with "dinner with the Rogers girls," Walker said, a small group of longtime current and former residents who meet regularly to reminisce.

Former Rogers' resident Latrelle Massey got the Rogers girls together, Walker said. "Then I went out to Rogers, walked around, and took pictures. The school is still standing. They said the school was what had tied that community together."

Walker isn't certain how many of these calendar pictures she's done.

"Arch, Causey, Dora, Bethel, Elida, Floyd, Garrison, Milnesand...," she counts off, "maybe nine or 10 so far?"

Trish Fenton, an engineering data analyst for RCEC, says one thing is certain: "Our customers love the paintings and calendars."

All of the originals are framed and hanging in the Coop's Portales office.

"A lot of people said they frame the calendar prints, too," Fenton added. "When they see the town they grew up in they always say, 'I remember that store' or 'there is the old school,' etc. Gayle does such a great job on these and bringing the coop world into each picture."

The Walker/RCEC partnership was a happy coincidence. Jerry Partin, general manager of the Cooperative from 1991 to 2017, is Walker's brother-in-law. He happened to see a painting she had done of the Arch community for a gathering there.

"He wanted to feature a small community on the cooperative calendar, so I did another of Arch for the first one," Walker remembered.

Per Partin's original request, each of the paintings is set in the 1940s, the era when rural electrification first reached most of our smaller communities.

Walker was born in Roosevelt County. Her father, Wayne Wallace, was a painting contractor. Her mother, Nelda Wallace, taught art classes in Portales for 25 years.

"There is paint in the family," she says with a smile.

Walker's mother gifted her with a set of oil paints for Christmas "30 or 35 years ago," and now she says she retreats to the solitude of her studio at every chance.

If you're not a member of the RCEC, you may have seen her work in August at Clovis-Carver Public Library where she was the artist of the month for the Pintores Art League.

She will also be displaying and selling work - although she's not certain yet in which location - in the first Portales Art Festival Art Walk that takes place from 2-5 p.m. Saturday at locations throughout the town. That event is co-sponsored by the Eastern New Mexico University Art Department and an organization Walker recently joined, the Portales Creative Group.

She's participated in art walks in other communities and hopes for a good crowd Saturday.

"There will be two-to-three artists per business," Walker said. "You stay with your work and meet people who come in."

Locations include The 106 Gallery, 106 S. Main St.; The Happy Place, 109 S. Main St.; Do Drop Inn, 123 S. Main St.; Roosevelt Brewing Company, 201 S. Main St.; Edna's Sewing Basket, 214 S. Main St.; The Fashion Girl, 103 W. Second St.; AJ's Wings, 107 W. Second St.; Times Remembered Photography, 222 W. Second St.; Roosevelt Chamber of Commerce, 100 S. Ave. A; Best Western Hotel, 223 W. Second St.; and the ENMU Art and Anthropology building.

But first things first for Walker.

"My goal for now is to get this picture done," she said, and it's obvious she relishes the process.

"It's kind of criminal to do this and have this much fun," she says with a grin.

Then she dips her brush into paint and continues to bring history to life, one community at a time.

Betty Williamson shares Gayle Walker's passion for small-town histories. Reach her at:

[email protected]