RonnieAdventure #0039 – Benini Galleries and Sculpture Ranch, Blanco County, Texas

 

As we were driving east on Highway 290 just outside of Johnson City, I couldn’t help but notice a strange looking bull by the side of the road. At first I thought it was just a stray animal from the LBJ Ranch, but upon further investigation it turned out to be a sculpture made from scrap automotive parts. (I think I recognized a bumper that was similar to one that I had on one of my old pickups.) A sign indicated that the bull was from the Benini Galleries and Sculpture Ranch, which was open to the public and located about five miles down a small side road. Time for a RonnieAdventure!

The small, narrow road followed the Texas Hill Country topography as we traveled up and down and around a lot of hills at maximum speed of about 35 mph, eventually arriving at a gate with a visitor’s welcome sign. As we traveled to the galleries, both sides of the entry road were lined with works of art by various artist.

Arriving at the galleries, we were amazed to find such a nice facility, and an internationally known artist, located in this remote part of Texas (Johnson City has a population of 1,191 people). The people at the gallery were very friendly and invited us to come in for a tour.

We found that the Benini facilities included a 14,000 square foot studio building with a fine arts library and exhibit galleries featuring 40 years of Benini’s and other artists’ works. Also available is a driving tour of the ranch with sculptures located along the roads. The driving area of the ranch is a place for national and international artists to exhibit large-scale, contemporary sculptures. Many of the sculptures are for sale and a price list is available at the gallery.

As an added bonus, while we were driving around the ranch, we saw a Texas Armadillo walking across the road and a beautiful sunset on the way back to Johnson City.