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.
Melody DeBenedictis • Colorado • waow
Melody DeBenedictis is an American contemporary fine artist, painter, singer, songwriter, and advocate, best known for her expressive oil paintings that capture the rugged landscapes of the western United States and the wild mustangs that roam them. She often travels across western rangelands to photograph and experience the wild firsthand, using these experiences as inspiration for her paintings. DeBenedictis is an advocate for wild horses, using her art and music to bring awareness to their habitats and the challenges they face.
Lana Dunlap • Oklahoma • waow
Lana Dunlap is a self-taught fine artist known for creating artworks inspired by the working West — including portraits and images of ranch life, livestock, and western themes. Her pieces often capture both the quiet strength and raw emotion in her subjects. She works in gouache, colored pencils, and charcoal on various substrates.
Elizabeth Sage • Arizona & Colorado • waow
Elizabeth Sage honed her self-taught ability to see and render the most difficult of images and precious of moments through a corporate career in graphic design for over 20 years. In 2000 she changed her calling and passion to full time professional fine artist, creating powerful imagery and stories on canvas.
Dana Lombardo • Oklahoma • waow
Dana Lombardo resides by the shores of Grand Lake in Northeast Oklahoma. There she draws endless inspiration from the picturesque surrounding landscape and the vibrant local culture. Her artistic works manifest a deep-rooted affection for the land. She also depicts Native American themes in which she endeavors to preserve and share the depth of their heritage.
Natalie Campbell • California • waow
Natalie Campbell captures the beauty of the world around her, primarily working with pastels on black paper. She infuses each piece with the same passion and energy that drives her. Despite being new to the art world, she is already a nationally award-winning artist and has shown her work locally, nationally and internationally. Natalie looks forward to continuing to exhibit her artwork around the country
Janis Blayer • Arizona • waow
Janis Casco-Blayer’s studio and plein air paintings from the Northwest, Arizona, Hawaii and abroad reflect diversity in her paintings. She has worked in a variety of mediums including oil, watercolor, zinc plate etching and bronze sculpture among others. Blayer’s impressionistic style captures the spirit of animals, people and landscapes with uncanny precision and emotion. Her recent move to Buckeye, Arizona has ushered in a new era of creativity, infusing her artwork with captivating southwest landscapes, cowboys, horses, and rodeo scenes.
Debbie Carroll • Texas • waow
The work of Debbie Carroll is about expressing what she observes when surveying the West and Southwest regions of the United States. The challenge is to draw out the intrinsic beauty of the ordinary and often overlooked. She strives to elevate her subjects in her painting — not to show the obvious, but to reveal the extraordinariness of what is familiar. Travel is the backbone of Carroll’s work. She feels it throws her into new circumstances and surroundings, bringing new inspiration to take home to share through her studio work.
Judith Brunko • Colorado & Arizona • waow
Judith Brunko loves the dramatic movement of the human figure and how it relates to the landscape of Colorado and Arizona, which she calls home. The people of the West and Southwest are what fuels her art. She portrays the figure in dance or costume evoking an emotion of time and place. Utilizing color, form and delicate brush strokes she creates a story.