'Verbena' Oil on canvas, 24' x 34' 1927 Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibition  Awarded 'Texas Prize'   Verbena, with it's sweep of pink and its strong diagonal lines, creates an exquisite harmony of color and line. The painting stands as a monument to Texas wildflower art and forms a fine contrast to the numerous bluebonnet scenes in the Art League's collection. -RC

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'Cactus Flowers' Oil on canvas, 30' x 40' 1928 Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibition Awarded Third Prize, Group 1: Texas Wildflowers (open division)  Cactus Flowers, like Verbena is painted with a diagonal axis, which encourages the eye to continually move throughout the composition. In the distance we see cliffs of the Texas Hill country, and Arpa employs one of his favorite compositional elements, a strong horizontal horizon. In all of Arpa's paintings in the Davis Collection we see clarity of atmosphere, which is the artist's hallmark and a reminder of his Spanish art education. -RC

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'Picking Cotton' Oil on canvas, 30' x 40' 1929 Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibition Awarded First Prize, Group 3: Cotton Fields   In the 1929 painting, Picking Cotton, Arpa has introduced the human element. The portrait of the young boy in the foreground makes a social statement that is as relevant today as it was in 1929. The toil of working in the hot fields is vividly intensified by the shimmering light and the weight of the distant horizontal horizon. -RC