Artist Bio 

GD Rankin's Fine Art Journey...

GD Rankin was born and raised in the San Antonio region both in the city and country enjoying the best of both worlds. He is from south central Texas, but has lived and worked all around the state including Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Corpus Christi, Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley area. He was practically riding before he could walk, so he developed a fondness for horses early in life and has enjoyed the rodeo scene with his family for years. Being in the outdoors with the livestock and wildlife simply came natural as they became his playground and playmates. The ponies were often his babysitters as a toddler.

When it came to indoor activities as a child, the first choice often included crayons and other types of creative "toys". Having an uncle that was an art student in high school living next door was influential in his early life and was enough inspiration to get him started as a budding artist.

He began his first job in the commercial art realm at a young age, starting with screen printing tee shirts in a small shop on the near west side of San Antonio. Later a larger shop in Houston, then back to San Antonio a few years later to take it up a notch. He began painting the large billboards in the early 80s and mastered the craft of scaling up graphics where 1 inch often equaled 1 foot on the signs. Soon the sign work included taking smaller jobs and banners and even a few murals and backdrops for bands over the next several years. 

Chapter 1 - July 1996

When asked about how he got started with Fine Arts, GD recalls, "The summer of '96, my girlfriend at the time, knew I'd be laid up in bed for a couple of weeks after a hernia operation. As a get well soon gift, she brought me a "professional grade" watercolor set, (pro grade? who knew?) complete with brushes and a 12" x 16" pad of special watercolor paper. The last time I saw watercolors was in kindergarten in the little plastic trays, but boredom can be a very good motivator. So I began to experiment with the paint and paper to see how they would behave under different conditions based on amount of water added." So what he likes to call "Chapter 1" began and lasted about 7.5 months.

Chapter 2 - January 2002

GD's Uncle Kenny had become a big fan GD's art and requested a Lion painting to complete his own big cat art collection. This was the first of what would become the first series of wildlife paintings in watercolor that also included a Tiger, a scene with a Bald Eagle and a couple of White Tail Deer to end the second chapter.

Chapter 3 - January 2005

After a few years away from painting, the record breaking cold weather in winter of '05 was a good reason to get the brushes out and stay indoors for a while. Someone had suggested Acrylic paints to GD, so he gave them a try and soon enjoyed a new set of challenges. Painting on Canvas was much different that painting on Cold Press paper with watercolor, so it was almost like starting all over learning the new medium. A set of four "Wild Horses" paintings was complete with the acrylics in a few short weeks. A portrait close up photo of a beautiful Cougar was displayed on a favorite wildlife rescue's website, called Animal Ark, caught his eye .... "it begged to be painted".

However, GD remembered did not have any more canvas handy that day, so the watercolors came back out to take on the project called "Mountain Lyin" - an 18" x 24" size that had become comfortable after the two deer. With another big cat under his belt, GD took on a couple of Wolves and another African Lion - also in the photo realism style.. 

Chapter 4 - July 2024

This "4th chapter of my painting journey", GD says, "began in the summer of 2024 and started with the Pear Blossoms painting featuring a Honey Bee." In 2014 he began following an old family tradition and started another artistic journey of sorts . . . the age old art of beekeeping. Then a year later turned the venture into a full time business, so again, he put the paint brushes on hold for a while.

Fast forward 10 years and he finally found little time for painting again. "I was able to get some quality help and they learned my system well enough to allow me some away time for a change." GD said.
Growing a honey bee business was a great journey of it's own, but left him with very little spare time... until July of '24.

So it was only fitting that the first painting, after a 10+ year break, should include a honey bee and some blossoms. This chapter starts off with many of the paintings containing a bit more bold and considerably brighter color pallets. Many are on larger sizes of canvas and include some amounts of airbrush work. Such as one titled "War Horses", a portrait of our 4 mini ponies that are more like little ol' hippy gals than warriors.  

Chapter 5 - July 2025

... more to come ...