Harris Shelton (1896-1976)

George Harris Shelton: El Paso, Painter, commercial artist, designer, lawyer. Shelton was legal counsel for Republic Steel Corporation in Ohio before coming to El Paso about 1923. He began painting in earnest after being stricken by arthritis. He was a student of =Emilio Garcia Cabero for two years. George Frederick, and Ivan F. Summers. He maintained a studio in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where he painted in the summer, and a residence-studio in the Cortez Hotel, El Paso, where he worked the remaining months of the year. His studio in the hotel was said to be “a paradise for the artist’s arty friends, who can be found resting and admiring his landscapes and his many desert studies in oil” For seven years he designed program covers and parade floats as official artist of the Southwestern Sun Carnival in El Paso. Shelton died in El Paso. Exhibitions: Woman’s Club, El Paso (1935, 1942 one-man); Catholic Exhibit Building, Dallas Centennial Exposition (1936); Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs (1939); El Paso Community Theater (1944 one-man); Early El Paso Artists, El Paso Centennial Museum (1981)l Los Angeles (one-man) and New York. Collections: Fair Park, Dallas. Plaza Theater, El Paso.