Anytime Trish Wise closes her eyes to think about her late father’s Palo Pinto County ranch, a wave of memories floods her mind.
She remembers when her father, William “Bill” Davidson, built the home near the Brazos River in 1983 after his retirement. She remembers aunts and uncles visiting on the weekends to fire rifles and play cards. She remembers teaching her son, then 9, to drive for the first time in a pickup truck.
Even painful memories, like the family selling the property before Davidson’s death in 2009, come to mind.
But now, when Wise thinks of her father’s ranch, black smoke clouds those intimate moments.
The home is one of roughly 157 structures destroyed in the Ross Fire, which has spread to more than 90,000 acres in Palo Pinto and Jack counties. As of Tuesday, crews have contained roughly 31% of the North Texas wildfire, according to the latest data from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Drone footage of her family’s former home burning has been featured in news broadcasts, Wise said.
“It took my breath away,” she said. “I really didn’t know what to think. It was just shock.”
In order to process the devastating loss, Wise leaned on her profession as an artist to immortalize the blaze in a painting.
The abstract, watercolor artwork features hues of dark blue and gray in the sky as the white home is engulfed in bright flames.
“I saw the house from a completely different perspective in so many ways,” she said of the painting. “I did feel like my brush was sad and angry.”
A close-up look at Trish Wise’s watercolor painting depicting her late father’s home engulfed in flames. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)
Wise heard about the damage to her father’s home last Tuesday when her brother sent video of the Ross Fire to her phone. That morning, her dog Jingle didn’t want to go on her routine neighborhood walk — unusual for her pet. The Benbrook sky was cloudy and it smelled burnt, Wise recalled.
It wasn’t until she saw the drone footage that she knew Jingle had somehow sensed the tragedy.
The artist immediately printed out images of the burning home. She set watercolors and a blank canvas on her dining table and began to paint. Artworks usually take multiple sessions, she explained, but this one was completed that same morning.
Wise can’t remember where she started on the canvas. It felt like her hand guided itself.
Although the painting has helped Wise navigate the loss of her former family home, she knows there are others still residing in Palo Pinto and Jack counties who are facing more difficult situations.
“I started thinking about the people who, God love them, cut the fences for those animals. The bravery of those men that are now still fighting the fire,” she said with tears in her eyes. “That’s their livelihood. I send prayers, because it’s all about them right now.”
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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