Jerral W. Derryberry

Born June 7, 1942
In Tampa, Florida
Resides in Dallas, Texas

Jerral Derryberry grew up in small towns in Texas and Colorado. He spent just about every summer in Georgetown, Colorado, with his cousin, a professional photographer, as she roamed the Rocky Mountains in search of wildlife and alpine flowers. These early adventures influenced his love for painting western mountains and rivers.

During the school year he lived in McKinney, Texas, where the small town life influenced his interest in rural landscapes.

He attended college at Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Arlington and The University of Texas at Austin, where, in 1967, he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree.

The training he received in architectural illustration techniques, casein, gauche and watercolor, enabled him to pay for his college education by working as a free lance illustrator and was the first step toward his future as a fine artist.

In 1988, after owning a successful architecture and graphics design firm, he decided it was time to pursue his dream of becoming a fine artist. He moved to Taos, New Mexico where he concentrated his efforts on studying the oil painting techniques of the great New Mexico impressionist masters. Galleries of works of living artists applying their knowledge also surrounded him and he had the privilege of painting with many of the nation's best. It was during this period that he developed a passion for painting Southwest landscapes. He has been a member of the Taos Society of Artists, Santa Fe Society of Artists, Santa Fe Artists' League and Denver Art Student's League. He continued to live in New Mexico and sell his paintings in galleries and juried shows in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona for nearly a decade.

In 1997, he returned to Texas. Now living in Dallas, his works have received many regional, national and best of show awards, including the 1999 H.K.Holbein Merit Award for Excellence in Art, the 2000 Winsor Newton Award and the 2000 Outdoor Painter's Society Plein Air Award. His work has been published in Art Gallery International Magazine, Southwind Magazine and Dallas Bar Association's Headnotes. His work is currently represented and sold in regional and national juried exhibitions and is internationally collected for both private and corporate collections.

Currently, he is a member of the New York Salmagundi Club, Oil Painters of America, Outdoor Painters' Society, Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, Tucson Plein Air Painters' Society and a signature member of Associated Creative Artists.

Jerral's paintings have become known for their soft, peaceful, quiet and meditative qualities. "The goal of my works is to produce an image that pulls the viewer's mind into the painting, holding it there, generating a positive and uplifting emotional response. The two most reached for emotional experiences being a sense of peacefulness and delightful discovery."