William Lumpkins (1909 - 2000)

William Lumpkins was an artist and architect best known for his abstract watercolors and pioneering solar adobe architecture. He was a founding member of the Transcendental Painting Group and cofounder of the Santa Fe Art Institute.  He was born on April 8, 1909 at the Rabbit Ears Ranch, in Territorial New Mexico, and died on March 20, 2000 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Lumpkins was an early proponent of passive solar design, having built his first passive solar house in Capitan, NM in 1935. The former residence of solar scientist Dr. J. Douglas Balcomb in Santa Fe, designed by Lumpkins with his company Sun Mountain Design, is considered by many the "quintessential solar adobe house.” 

Lumpkins started exhibiting his paintings in 1932, most of which were watercolors. He met artist Raymond Jonson in Santa Fe in 1935, and exhibited with Jonson and other members of the Transcendental Painting Group from 1938-1942. Lumpkins was one of the earlier Abstract Expressionists, having employed the style about a decade before other American artists popularized it.

Source: MODERN SPANISH-PUEBLO HOMES by William Lumpkins