FORT WORTH -- As a kid during the late 1930s at Polytechnic Elementary School, Ronald Thomason wasn't exactly the faculty's idea of a model student, his lifelong friend Jim Atkinson said this week.
"He stayed in trouble drawing all the time," Atkinson laughed.Little did the Polytechnic teachers know then that Mr. Thomason's pencils and paintbrushes would become his tools as surely as a hammer or a typewriter.His best-known public works include a lifesize bronze sculpture of actress Mary Martin as Peter Pan that stands on the grounds of the Weatherford Public Library, and the sculpture of Texas Christian University football legend Davey O'Brien that is on display in the Fort Worth Club.Mr. Thomason traveled the country painting and showing his works, and was honored as Texas State Artist during the 1970s.His friendships with Atkinson and his other east Fort Worth pals would endure until Mr. Thomason's death Aug. 4 at his home in Harper, a Hill Country retreat that he and his wife, Sherra, called the Artist's Eye.It was his 80th birthday.Friends and family had a memorial service at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth on Aug. 12.Mr. Thomason was born Aug. 4, 1931, in Shawnee, Okla. He lived most of his life in Fort Worth and Weatherford. After graduating from Polytechnic High School in 1949, Mr. Thomason played football at North Texas State University. After a stint in the military, he returned to study at TCU and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.Mr. Thomason was a sculptor, design artist, book and technical illustrator, lithographer and art teacher.His exhibitions have been featured at the Fort Worth Art Center Museum, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Drawing Exhibition, the Columbus (Ga.) Museum of Fine Art, Norwich (Vt.) University and Butler Institute of American Arts, as well as many colleges, universities and galleries across Texas.Much of Mr. Thomason's work was commissioned, his wife said."People would love for him to come out on their ranches and paint," she said. "People would commission him to say for them, 'This is my favorite place.'"Mr. Thomason once described himself in AskART, an online artists' reference site, as a realist in the style of Remington who eschewed Old West sentimentality. He prided himself on painting "windmills that work and cows that walk."He worked in dry-brush watercolor and egg tempera and also enjoyed painting detailed architectural subjects."He painted Texas, and he was very much of a preservationist," his wife said. "He painted a lot of old houses that have been torn down in towns across Texas, and he painted a lot of the forts. One of the paintings was the house at Camp Verde that Robert E. Lee stayed in."Mr. Thomason was easy-going and friendly."He would do anything in the world to help somebody," said Atkinson, a longtime Fort Worth dentist. "I've never seen anybody who knew as many people."Sherra Thomason, who married Ronald 17 years ago, joked that her circle of close friends went from about five couples to 3,000 people overnight."We stayed in contact all those years," said classmate and former Fort Worth Fire Marshal Donald Peacock."He was a sensitive person, and the only man I ever knew who would say to his friends, 'Goodbye, I love you.' Being an artist, I think that was part of it."Other survivors include daughters Ronda Goff of Grand Cayman Island, Gayle Barrick of Fort Worth and DeAnn Walker of Austin; a sister, Bettie Fulhart of Dallas; and nine grandchildren.Shirley Jinkins, 817-390-7657Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
