WAOW Artistry of the West
The WAOW Artistry is slowly being built to provide a page on our site to promote each artist* You can search by name, location or by subject matter to find an artist.
*Artist Source Acknowledgment: Content on these pages is shared with permission and is sourced from the featured member artist’s website and professional biography. All rights remain with the artist.
Cindy Sorley–Keichinger • Canada • waow
Cindy Sorley–Keichinger is a Canadian painter whose artwork focuses on realism depicting wildlife, nature, and landscape subjects. She prefers working in acrylics, but also works in oil and gouache. She is known for using vivid colors and capturing the essence of her subjects with a mix of observational detail and artistic vision. Sorley-Keichinger wants to bring viewers closer to nature and wildlife through her paintings. She believes that awareness leads to care.
Anne Peyton • Arizona • waow
Anne Peyton combines her skill as a painter with her deep knowledge of birds and active birding experience. Her work aims to foster appreciation and understanding of bird life and conservation issues, helping viewers connect emotionally and intellectually with the natural world. She has two criteria for each of her finished pieces: One is that the final image shows respect for the subject; the second is that viewers can learn something after studying the art. She typically works in acrylics, layering colors meticulously to portray accurate plumage, and the natural posture and attitude of her subjects.
Laara Cassells • Canada • waow
Laara Cassells is a contemporary Canadian artist noted for her paintings of figurative and pet portraits, wildlife, western themes, and equine subjects executed primarily in acrylic. Her style is grounded in realism blended with storytelling, often highlighting the emotional and individual character in both people and animals. She lives and works on a ranch in central Alberta. This rustic setting especially inspires her paintings of wildlife and western scenes.
Phyllis Mantik de Quevedo • Oklahoma • waow
Phyllis Mantik de Quevedo is a sculptor and painter. She is most widely known for her figurative sculptures. The inspiration for her current figurative series is flora and focuses on representing botanical forms through metaphors as they relate to human forms and human experiences. Both human beings and flora contribute color and vibrancy and she is moved to capture and share expressive brief moments in time.
Reenie Kennedy • California • waow
Reenie Kennedy is an award-winning acrylic artist. Her work reflects her love for wildlife with an emphasis on bird art. She enjoys combining wildlife with her exquisite floral and ocean inspired backdrops, along with a touch of humor. She believes a sense of humor in painting is one of the best ways to lift the spirits.
Kristen Federchuk • Canada • waow
Kristin Federchuk a self-taught artist. She practiced drawing by studying the works of artists she admired. She feels that her art career is what she was created to do. She experiences great joy and excitement as she brings each painting to its ultimate fruition. Federchuk’s subjects are varied, preferring to be free to explore and paint the beauty around her.
Janice Wright • Colorado • waow
Janice Wright is originally from Western Canada, but now calls Arvada, Colorado her home. She is a Visual Communications graduate from the Alberta College of Art of Canada. Wright worked as a graphic designer for over fifteen years. A one year residence in Europe provided her the opportunity to see paintings that previously she had only see in art history books. Profoundly moved by the experience, she stopped producing commercial art and began her fine art career.