"I want to paint what I want to now," he says. "I want to focus more on the people in my art and to tell stories." Although his subject matter is quite diverse, ranging from cowboys on trail rides to florals to rainy, turn-of-the-century street scenes, many collectors who know his art would think of his western subjects first.

With some 2,100 paintings completed in his career ("and probably about 2,000 I’d like to have back," he says), he’s worked hard to develop his skills. These days his art is poised to begin appearing in a variety of new mediums, adding books, wallpaper, clothing and possibly plates to his prints, canvas transfers and bronzes.

Although he was feeling the pressure of a looming deadline when we visited, Terry was excited about his new project, a series of 16 paintings for a book titled The Child of the Promise. Part of an ambitious multi-media presentation, the paintings will accompany text by famous Christian writer Stormie Omartian, who’s teaming with her equally well-known songwriter husband Michael to produce a play and music to celebrate the birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago. When the musical is presented this June in Israel as part of "Jerusalem 2000," singers to be involved will include Trisha Yearwood, Donna Summer, Steven Curtis Chapman, Vince Gill and other top talent The event will be broadcast internationally. Meanwhile, Terry has been researching biblical times and working on paintings to show important scenes from the story.

Terry became involved in the project at almost the eleventh hour. Meeting with his editor from Harvest House about an upcoming book that will feature his western are, Life, The Great Trail Ride, conversation turned to what he would paint if he could paint anything. Terry said he wanted to depict both the birth of Jesus and his triumphant return on a white stallion as foretold in Revelations. It was just what the editor needed to hear, because another artist had dropped out of a project that was only three days away from being lost if a new artist could not be found.

"When something happens like this, you have to believe that it’s not an accident," says Terry.

As I watched, Terry spent the morning painting one of the book’s 16 scenes: baby John the Baptist being held for the first time by his father, an elderly priest. The faces had already been painted and the clothing sketched in when he set the canvas on the easel. In the next few hours the composition took on form and color with a simple blue sky and white clouds above a soft green landscape with mountains in the distance, and the father’s peach robe with purple shadows. At mid-day, the painting could have passed for nearly complete to my eyes, but not for Terry, who described how he would continue to add more details such as an intricate design to the sleeves of the priest’s robe.

At this point in his career, this is the type of project that Terry wants to continue, and he hopes to eventually develop his own multimedia presentations with biblical themes.

Gallery owner Skip Kirkland of Jackson-Kirkland Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., knows Terry’s art well. "People universally appreciate the fact that it’s genuine," he says. "What Jack paints is not, in my opinion, capable of being faked. The people who really respond to Jack’s art do so because of the accuracy and correctness of the human and animal subjects that he paints. Western American heritage people who come from that life know what is right—which foot is up when the other is down, what tack is right, when a headstall is out of configuration, stirrups are too long, or whatever. People know that.

"As a result of coming from that western heritage, Jack paints what he paints in a very real way that people who collect his art would not otherwise buy it. They’d say a horse doesn’t do that, you don’t put your tack on like that, or you don’t sit a horse like that. I think it comes from his heritage as part of a fourth-generation ranching family, also his artistic heritage, which you don’t see together that often. Jack’s grandmother was one of the leading landscape painters of the early 20th century," says Kirkland.

Terry’s accomplishments are impressive-selection as Bicentennial Artist of Texas at age 24, a commission to paint President Lyndon B. Johnson for a Texas bicentennial calendar in 1976, a special commissions for President George Bush and Texas governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush. Collectors of his work include Burt Reynolds, rodeo champion Larry Mahan, Travis Tritt, Dick Clark, Anheuser-Busch and Exxon. Some years he does an many as two dozen one-man shows and signings around the country.

Visitors to the Terry home cross a low bridge across the Guadalupe River and climb a steep hill to reach Rancho de Lomas. Located outside Kerrville, Texas, in the heart of Texas Hill Country, the hacienda-style stucco house was designed five years ago by Terry and his wife Mary, with much of the difficult interior carpentry work done by Terry. Twelve-foot ceilings in the main living area are supported by Douglas fir timbers and exposed beams hand-cut by Terry.

"I had to plane them down myself. Most of the local carpenters thought we were crazy," he says.

Saltillo tile floors and Mexican fireplaces in the living room and Terry’s studio add to the hacienda ambience. A 55-foot deck across the rear of the house overlooks a westward Hill Country view of live oak trees where deer and antelope roam freely.

Terry’s day begins early as he cares for their animals, including a pair of two-year-old horses that he’s trying to train, chickens, assorted cats, and a few exotic animals, such as black-buck antelope from Africa, Axis deer from India, Sitka deer from China, and fallow deer. Some years they also raise cattle. The animals must be fed twice a day, before Jack and Mary attend to other details of their business.

Mary oversees the office and shipping facility on the ranch, as well as their gallery in town, while Jack tends to business needs as they arise and then paints as much as he can.

"Mary has a tremendous business head," says Jack. "She’s brilliant and extremely efficient."

Terry’s paintings go to galleries in Santa Fe, Aspen, Dallas and Austin. He likes to have the luxury of keeping painting in his studio for a few months to keep studying and refining them, "but when the galleries are screaming for paintings it’s hard to do that," he says. Although their home is filled with art-Jack’s and other artists’-he seldom gets to keep his own originals.

In his studio he is surrounded by western memorabilia-saddles, leather holsters and rifles, hats, and American Indian head dresses-that appears in many of his paintings. Leather chaps made for his cowboy grandfather on the famed King Ranch hang on one of the rustic mesquite and cedar doors from Mexico that lead into the studio. Set into the wall nearby is a Mexican wooden barn window with bars that still show chew marks from horses. Inside the spacious studio, European antique furniture mixes comfortably with soft animal skins and Indian throws, plus fine antique bronzes and inkwells that Terry collects.

Prints of his paintings hang throughout the studio, including one that he keeps as a reminder of the 5 x 8-foot painting that he tried to paint for his own walls but that ended up going to a friend "who needed it more than I did." His great-grandfather’s Civil War sword and family photos complete the decor.

When Mary and Jack met in the 1970s, she was a classy city woman from Dallas with a degree in interior design. Jack had retreated from city life to reassess his career and clear his head after a tragic studio fire. He was working on a West Texas ranch for $10 a day and painting at night and on weekends. He turned to cowboying after the gallery he and a friend owned in Austin burned. He lost 30 paintings and most of his beloved grandfather’s treasured cowboy gear. The few items he could save hang in his studio now.

A friend suggested that Terry bring a few of his paintings to Austin to show to Mary since she was there to find art for a client, and "she was kind of cute, too," his friend said. After driving all night, Terry arrived at about 7 a.m. in dusty jeans and faded work shirt with art in hand. Mary bought a few paintings, but it took several months before she would agree to date him.

"She wasn’t real interested in dating me because she had a successful design business. I instantly fell in love with her," says Terry. "That messed up my head because she didn’t figure into my plans at that point."

They married after several years of long-distance dating, which required him to drive 4½ hours each way to Dallas from West Texas. Terry couldn’t handle living in the city, however, so they moved to East Texas, where he pursued his art and they collaborated on renovating houses. During their 22-year marriage, they’ve built or restored 12 houses together.

Although Terry says Mary cried for several years about leaving the big city, they have always worked closely together. "We’re alike in so many ways now," he says. "The main difference is that she’s more the business part of our relationship. She’s a real stickler for the details. We have lots of the same tastes."

Terry’s new book, Life, the Great Trail Ride, includes his thoughts about subjects he depicts in his paintings, such as contentment, adversity, family, purpose, and other virtues. His journalism degree from the University of Texas is finally finding expression.

With his former college football player’s build and quiet manner, Terry impresses those who meet him with both his physical and moral strength. Asked why it’s become so important to him to depict positive values in his art now, he says that he’s fed up with the lack of values seen in our society.

"We need a sense of morality and goodness in our country. I view it as my responsibility to emphasize these. Our children and grandchildren need positive reinforcement. I want to focus on positive, happy values. I have been so self-centered and driven in my own career that now it’s time to refocus and smell the roses," he says.

Terry plans to paint some new Western pieces soon with traditional family themes, showing husbands and wives working together to raise and support their families, and others honoring grandparents.

In recent years he’s been interviewing and taping various family members as they recall family history. A fourth-generation Texan, Terry soaks up stories about ancestors such as his maternal grandfather, who became a cowboy at age 15. This grandfather rode in some of the great cattle drives from the South Texas King Ranch (the world’s largest ranch) to Kansas. Jack’s paternal grandmother enjoyed painting the world around her and was an early inspiration to him as an artist.

"I want to do something of significance," says Terry, describing his goals for his art.

Seeing the range of Terry’s work so far, one is impressed by his technical mastery and quality of his paintings. Listening to his plans for the future makes one think that maybe he’s right when he says that his career " is just starting."

April in Old Aspen