Daunting in its vistas, its haggard peaks, Far West Texas strikes some as barren, unwelcoming – certainly no place to linger. Others, however, are entranced by that very starkness. But even for those seized by the beauty of the Trans-Pecos, explaining it, communicating it to others, can be a challenge.

Mary Baxter has been painting in Far West Texas for more than two decades. When it comes to capturing the elusive essence of the arid desert-mountain country, she has few peers. Her impressionistic paintings transmit the landscape's haunting allure, its intoxicating loneliness.

Far West Texans not native to the place often recall when they first felt its magic. Baxter was born in L...