Bunkhouse Tuesday Art Group

During the annual show at the historic bunkhouse, the adjacent barn and the stone house at Wenmohs Ranch spring to life as the Bunkhouse Gallery. This unique Hill Country location is a whimsical space full of art in different forms, from abstract and still life paintings, to collage, southwest art, jewelry, pottery and wood-work.

The barn is an all-year round art space where the Bunkhouse artists meet every Tuesday to create, advance and share their ideas about art, life and what have you.

The Tuesday painting group got its start in 1995 with only 2 other artists besides me –  Steve Hayes, and Donna Lofton, both wonderful artists.  Steve died, and Donna moved to West Texas, but others joined, and from time to time, someone would move away, and others took their place. The numbers just kept steadily growing and growing until our present time group of about 30. It really helps that at the onset, I established our 2 main rules.  No grouchy people allowed, and we don’t talk religion or politics.  We are just a refuge from the storms of life

DENA WENMOHS, THE OWNER

The bunkhouse was built in the 1880’s by the Wenmohs ranch patriarch John Bruno Wenmohs, a German immigrant, for his father. For a while, John Bruno’s various offspring lived there their first year of marriage and had their first child in this very house, which then became The Honeymoon House. As the years went by, more rooms were added on and the small 3 room house, surrounded by porches, was only a memory.

The little stone house in the back was built as a home for the school teacher, who lived on one side, while the other was used as a smokehouse.  In 1976, his great grandson, John Ben Wenmohs, moved here with his wife Dena and their family. John Ben died in 1993. Dena and her children have ranched this place ever since. In the mid 1990’s she started an art school, she named THE BUNKHOUSE.

Located in the foothills of the Texas Hill Country, the Wenmohs Ranch is a working cattle ranch that has been in the family for eight generations. The setting is pure Texas Hill Country with flowing hayfields, freshly cut hay bales, rolling pastures, roaming cattle, and winding country roads. Round Top Mountain in the background completes this perfect setting. Visitors arriving on RM-962 will have the opportunity to cross Cypress Creek. The creek emerges from an underground river outside the Ranch and gets its name from the giant Cypress Trees that line its banks. Year-round flora and fauna, including abundant wildflowers in the spring, decorate the countryside. At one time, a 12,000 acres Wenmohs ranch included what is now Pedernales Falls State Park.