April Garner is an Austin native, wife, mother, and artist. Having spent her youth on the rivers and lakes of central Texas has given April an ongoing appreciation of these beautiful natural resources that impact and inspire her work as an artist. The imagery for April’s paintings comes from the places she visits regularly. Closer observation of the birdlife over time, their gestures and actions, resilience, and survival together with the omnipresent human population are always the starting point for work that merges representation with expressive abstraction.     

April attended school while raising her sons and received a B.A. in Art from Saint Edward’s University and an M.A. in Art Education from the University of Texas Austin. Following several semesters as an Artist Mentor in Portrait Sculpture at Saint Andrew’s Upper School, April used her art education experience, along with a passion for Texas history to work as Heritage Tourism State Coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission. There she led stakeholder and professional teams to develop print guides and a travel app exploring historic places through cultural themes and events. 

Retiring from the Texas Historical Commission has enabled April to pursue an art practice. April began exhibiting her work in 2020 and has sold to private collections in the state of Texas.