Horseshoe Bay painter Kim Jungkind captures the art of nature through the nature of her art

A self-ascribed woman of many talents, artist Kim Jungkind of Horseshoe Bay, a retired nurse-turned-ranch hand, finally has enough time to pursue her true passion: painting.

“I’m very goal-driven,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be an artist.”  

And now she is.

While living and working at a hospital in Grenada, a tiny island country in the Caribbean Sea, Jungkind took painting lessons and became enamored with the impasto technique of adding texture and depth to an image by applying a sculpting medium.

“I painted mostly windswept scenes of sailboats and sunsets,” she said. “Impasto was perfect for that.”

When she returned to Texas in 2015, she realized her audience wanted something more, well, Texan. She toured the area, snapping photos, and began painting Hill Country barns. In 2020, she became a member of the Highland Arts Guild, hanging her work in the guild’s gallery at 318 Main St. in Marble Falls.  

“They all sold,” she said, beaming.  

Soon after that, on a trip to visit her kids in Colorado, she fell in love with aspen trees and thought they, too, would benefit from the impasto technique—especially the sharp contrasts and textures of the black-and-white bark. As soon as she returned home, she got started. 

“The trees are my major focus,” she said. “I just love the black and white aspen trees.”

To further integrate her love of art with her love of nature, Jungkind became a Texas Master Naturalist, receiving in-depth training in wildlife and natural resource management. Per the group’s website at txmn.org/highlandlakes: “The mission of the Texas Master Naturalist Program is to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.”

“Becoming a Master Naturalist was a great way to learn about nature here in Texas,” she said. “It all came together.”

Jungkind wanted to combine her two passions and teach both.

“I decided to use my art to make an impact on families here in the Hill Country,” she said.

With this idea in mind, Jungkind approached Candlelight Ranch in Marble Falls, an organization that provides “back-to-nature” experiences for military families as well as children with disabilities or limited means or those in the foster care system. 

Her goal was to use nature as a source of inspiration to encourage the development of the creative process that leads to art. She hoped the result would come full circle: a better understanding of the art of nature—expressed on canvas—to become nature as art.

For Jungkind, it is about “using art to make an impact,” be it on those who see it or on those who make it. She understands how art and nature can help people heal and flourish and wanted to use her combined talents to enable that process. 

She introduced the children at Candlelight Ranch to the art of painting aspens. Strips of paper tape were applied to the canvas to create the spaces between trees. Tree trunks were then painted impasto style, the tape removed and leaves dabbed on with a paint version of the gluestick. She urged the young painters to add other things they thought might belong in their paintings and, based on their replies, taught them how to paint flowers, birds, grass, and more.

The results were even better than she had hoped. A “discovery” of art and nature came together, and the children were ecstatic. Having just painted a flower, one little girl turned to Jungkind. 

“It worked!” the child said, thrilled with her art.

“The families loved it, and they were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I now get what an artist does,’” Jungkind said. “That makes sense to our kids and our families.”

Jungkind was not simply teaching painting skills, she was teaching creative thinking and helping the kids create a world in which they might flourish.  

“You gave great value,” one woman told her. 

Jungkind hopes more people realize “what it really means to have an artist just focusing on your goals, at your place.”

Her next art challenge is being invited to compete in Paint the Town, an annual plein air art event in Marble Falls. The 2025 Paint the Town is April 6-12. 

Jungkind plans to paint five barns as her application for the juried show. 

“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” she said.

She presented a lecture, “Teaching Nature Through Unique Art,” at the Texas Master Naturalists’ annual meeting in San Marcos in October.  

“I wanted to encourage other artists who are also Master Naturalists to use their art skills to teach about nature,” she said.

After all, the art of nature is the nature of her art.

terry@thepicayune.com