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Here is the old Hardin County courthouse in Kountze, Texas as it appeared before it was replaced by the modern building we know today. This painting depicts one of the very rare days when snow fell in Southeast Texas.

Highway 69 runs through Kountze, which is the county seat of Hardin County. Two entrepreneurial brothers who were contemporaries and competitors of Arthur Stilwell and "Bet A Million" Gates founded Kountze in 1881. Herman and Augustus Kountze were Nebraska bankers and founders of the Sabine and East Texas railroad. They also had vast timber holdings in Southeast Texas. In 1881 their railroad bypassed the old county seat of Hardin in favor of their newly established town of Kountze, two miles east of Hardin. As a result, Kountze became the county seat of Hardin County around 1886. The brothers donated the land for the original Hardin County courthouse in 1904.

I remember like it was yesterday... The little black box of PRANG watercolors I received at Christmas when I was seven started me on a lifelong love of drawing and painting. Rendering the images of every comic book character from Mickey Mouse to Superman and Little Lulu furthered my art education. Little Golden Books, "The Color Kittens," taught me the basics of mixing colors. Then a magical experience happened! At the Jefferson Theater in downtown Beaumont, Texas (where I was born and raised), I saw Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Eagerly I awaited each new release through the years: Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp. At 12, I started an art notebook and bought my first oil paints. At 14,...