Step into the rich history and lively spirit of Texas dance halls through Waltz Across Texas, an exhibition of oil paintings by Gail Wendorf. Inspired by the historic dance halls that have served as gathering places, cultural landmarks, and centers of community across the Lone Star State, Wendorf’s paintings capture the character and nostalgia of these beloved spaces.
Through vibrant color, architectural detail, and a deep appreciation for Texas history, Wendorf invites viewers to experience the unique stories held within these iconic halls. From their weathered exteriors to the atmosphere they evoke, each painting celebrates the places where generations of Texans have gathered to dance, celebrate, and create lasting memories.
Waltz Across Texas offers a glimpse into a cherished part of Texas culture while honoring the enduring legacy of the state’s historic dance halls.
I will forever be indebted to Ray Trotter. It was he who gave me the idea for my painting series, WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS. It was he who put together my love of the dance, the two-step, the swing, with the historic dance halls of Texas. His verbal support was all I needed to jump in with both feet, not caring how deep the water was! His belief in my ability torecord the dancers and their emotion was so great that I believed I could do it myself. Weboth thought the project would be finished in perhaps five solid months of work. People thought there were fewer thana a dozen dance halls still open on a regular basis! All I hadto begin was a ready knowledge of Gruene Hall (I’d been there once), Luckenbach, and the Broken Spoke, plus a three-year-old article on old Texas dance halls that had come out in Texas Monthly.
In early 1999, I started WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS. I began with the first of dozens of trips across New Mexico and Texas in my trusty steed, an unair-conditioned Honda Civic. My routine very quickly became this: drive the 10-hour journey from Riber, NM to Marble Falls, TX. Friday and Saturday evenings, drive as much as 100 miles each way to a dance hall, sometimes two if they were close together. Return to Marble Falls, fall into bed, get up, stay indoors until the heat of the day is gone, venture out to look at new dance halls, check my directions, following up on leads I’d gotten the night before from fellow dancers, and eventually on my way to a new dance hall. I began to feel like a creature of the night (rather than my usual diurnal personality). Sometimes, I’d be so tired, as I approached a new dance hall, I’d have to steel myself, and march in. But once inside, hearing the music, feeling it in my bones, dancing, I was transported and in love all over again. I began taking 10 days…two weekends and the weekdays between, each month to do the driving, research, dancing, photographing. Then I’d return home to New Mexico with rolls of film, sketches, and ideas floating in my head from the memories of each dance hall. There, I’d spend the rest of the month stretching canvases, painting, and doing what phone research could on each dance hall. Each autumn, I would escape to Scotland to paint the landscapes, and take a break from the more than full-time, 7 days/week commitment to WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS.
I very quickly realized before the end of the first summer, that WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS was a much bigger project than Mr. Trotter and I had first envisioned. There were more dancehalls than we imagined, and it was going to be much more difficult to find them all. I quickly became so passionate about this series, that when Mr. Trotter backed out of his sponsorship due to an overbooked life, there was no question that I would spend what it took to finish the project. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I had invested so much of my time and my own finances, that I had to opeion but to leap ahead. In 2000, a friend and filmmaker, Charles Harp, began to accompany me on my long drives through the Texas night. A welcome addition, he was shooting footage for a documentary he was working on about Tommy Hancock, one of the musicians who used to play these dance halls. I finished painting the series in September, 2001, 3 years and more than 75,000 miles after Ifirst drove across Texas in search of the Texas dance hall and all it represented to me. I have a lot of wonderful new friends, I’ve had the interest of the Texas Film Commission, who gave me a huge step forward when they gave me a list of all dance halls in Texas, new or otherwise; I met the First Lady (of Texas), Laura Bush, who showed the first group of paintings in her offices in 2000; and had the opportunity to look at my heritage firsthand, got to know the people of Texas in a completely different way, and came to love it. I began with the Broken Spoke.
My academic background began at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, then to the University of California, Irvine, where I studied painting as a studio art major. My lifelong interest in archaeology led me to California State University, Los Angeles, where I combined my love of painting and drawing with my interest in archaeology to create a unique degree program. I was awarded a bachelors degree in Archaeological Illustration in 1978. This allowed me to remain an artist while participating in the archaeology field. From 1978 to 1991, my work as an onsite illustrator took me all over the world. This global perspective has been a great influence on my life and work.
My next major achievement was a solo show with RB Ravens Gallery, Taos, NM in 1993. In 1996, I produced a solo exhibition in Fremantle, West Australia, in conjunction with the Artist’s Foundation of West Australia in their public space, the Moore’s Building. Titled Paintings of Multicultural Dance and Ritual, the work was about “aboriginal dance”. To me that didn’t mean just indigenous people; it was any spontaneous, gut level response to music or rhythm that I saw – a theme that continues today. In both my figurative and landscape paintings, whether painted on canvas or board, my goal is the interpretation of movement, light, colour and passion in the music, dance or landscape. My work helps the viewer be drawn into the emotionally charged atmosphere, living the landscape, the music and the musician’s passion.
Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts became interested in work I produced while on my first painting trip, autumn 1998, to Glenfinnan, Scotland. I have shown each year with the gallery since then. In 1999, I began Waltz Across Texas, a study of Dance Inside the Historic Dance Halls of Texas, (WAT) at the request of RB Ravens Gallery. A Preview exhibition of the work was held at the Texas state capitol by then first lady of Texas, Laura Bush. New Braunfels Museum of Art and Music’s inaugural exhibition, WAT in its entirety in conjunction with Dance Halls and Last Calls, opened May, 2003.
I have spent the thirteen years living and working in Glenfinnan, Scotland. Painting the musicians, the ceilidhs, and the landscape that carries so much of the Scots’ passion for life. CEILIDH! has now been exhibited at the Scottish Parliament, at a charity exhibition for Mercy Ships at Kinfauns Castle, at Paisley Museum of Art, and most recently, at Radio France in Paris. I have now begun to establish another studio in the USA, as well as Scotland and France.
In the past few years, my interest in new places has surfaced again, and while I continue to enjoy painting ceilidhs and landscapes in Scotland, I have begun to explore new territory. So far, Tenerife, the French coast, and now Morocco have captured my imagination! I’ve no idea where my muse will take me next!
