An Artist's Dream Lives On

HCAF:
An Artist's Dream Lives On

Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on August 15, 2025

Hill Country Arts Foundation as it looked prior to the July 2025 Flood

We all have dreams, things we want to accomplish during our lifetime. Today I am going to tell you the story of a woman who wasn’t just a dreamer — she was a “do-er” who made a beautiful, durable imprint on Kerr County.
Almost from birth, Edith loved to draw. The extra hours of light provided by her father’s electric plant gave her plenty of time to develop her artistic skills and dream of going art school one day. Unfortunately, in those days, young ladies of her class were expected to be a debutante and sew items for her hope chest. Her dreams of taking “real art classes” were put on hold for more womanly pursuits until she was 20.

The First Point Theater Stage, circa 1959

Edith Fuller was born in 1896 in Calvert. She was one of nine children born to Louis and Mary Josephine Fuller. Her father owned the electricity plant in Calvert and of her childhood she said there was never a dull moment (due to the numerous siblings) and there was always plenty of light. 

Edith McAshan

It was her older sister, Lucy, who helped make her dreams come true. Lucy was hired as a paid chaperone for Houston socialite Ella Rice, who later became Mrs. Howard Hughes. In 1916, when Lucy ended her tenure as a chaperone, she had saved enough money for both her and Edith to travel to New York City and realize their educational dreams. While Lucy attended the Carnegie School of Library Sciences, Edith attended making her home in Houston. She married Robert Burton McAshan, a “dashing World War I soldier” later that same year. They had a son, Burt Jr., who was born in 1921. Throughout her years as a young wife and mother, Edith never stopped painting. Her son once recalled that “Mother decorated everything with her painting.” Edith added her artistic touch to whatever she felt needed embellishment — furniture, walls and even boat piers. She lived and breathed art, taking her son to numerous art galleries from Houston to Venice, Italy, to experience the work of the old masters first-hand.

Edith McAshan Self Portrait
Permanently on Display at HCAF

Edith always found time to paint, mostly portraits and landscapes, until her son enlisted in World War II. During that time, she volunteered for the Red Cross and prayed that her son would come home safely from war. When Burt Jr. returned home in 1944 and married his college sweetheart, Edith returned to her art.

It was not long after her son’s wedding that Edith visited the Texas Hill Country and fell in love. She and Burt Sr. were so taken by the area that they bought property on Bumble Bee Creek in western Kerr County and made it their home in January 1945. The property gave Edith enough room to build her own art studio, complete with north-facing windows to capture the perfect light. Within the walls of that art studio, Edith not only produced beautiful paintings, she started dreaming — and dreaming big — and setting goals. 

Recognizing that Kerr County seemed to be a magnet for many talented artists, she started to get to know other artists in the area, and they started meeting regularly, forming the Kerrville Art Club in 1952. She was also a founding member of the Hunt Garden Club. Both of these clubs are in existence today.

But it wasn’t enough just to form a club for artists; Edith had a dream to start an artist colony in Kerr County. She had attended art classes at the art colony in Rockport and loved working with other artists, sharing perspectives, learning techniques, etc., and found the experience stimulating. The experience left her with ideas and enthusiasm for building her own colony. It was a dream she shared with anyone who would listen.

One afternoon in 1958, Edith was driving through Ingram with her daughter-in-law, June, when a “for sale” sign caught her eye. Nestled between the Guadalupe River and Johnson Creek were an abandoned roller rink and chicken restaurant on 12 acres. Edith pulled onto the property to take a look around. She had to see more! She found an open window and climbed inside the roller rink to get a better look. At first glance, she knew that the spacious building was the perfect place for her artist colony.

Edith busily got to work finding investors who shared her enthusiasm for the project. With $500 in donations from 10 people, Edith made arrangements to lease the property. After the property was secured, Edith, her group of investors and many others in the community set to work clearing brush, remodeling buildings and making the site ready for the first season of art classes and summer theater.

The roller rink became “The Pavilion,” a space for art shows and events. The old fried chicken restaurant became four art studios. A small stage, dubbed the Point Theater, was built next to the river. In June of 1959, the Hill Country Arts Foundation was born and opened for its first season.

Side note: That first stage was hit by a flood during that first season and was washed away. The next year, a new stage was built, further away from the river with break-away doors to allow flood waters to flow through the structure, rather than sweeping it away. It’s how all subsequent stages (including the current stage) were built on the property afterwards — made to break in places to allow a flooded river to rage through it, but leaving the main structure intact.

Eventually, Edith returned to Houston, where she taught art, opened galleries and showed her art, but every summer she would return to the HCAF to take courses or teach until a broken hip and poor eyesight forced her to put the paint brush down for good. During her career as an artist, she was known mostly for her portrait work, her most notable being a painting of Adm. Chester Nimitz that hangs in the Pentagon.

Edith died in August of 1982 at the age of 86 but her dreams and accomplishments live on. The HCAF and Point Theatre, while profoundly damaged by the flood in July, still serves its mission as a place of inspiration where both the visual and performing arts thrive. It is also the home of the Texas Arts & Crafts Festival and local quirky attraction, Stonehenge II.

This weekend, you can both browse the beautiful art on exhibit in the Duncan-McAshan Visual Arts Center — where a self-portrait of Edith McAshan is on permanent display — and watch “Shipwrecked!” on a temporary stage built inside Stonehenge II. The main stage and indoor theater might be damaged by floods, but as they say, the show must go on.