WAOW Artistry of the West
The WAOW Artistry is slowly being built to provide a page on our site to promote each artist. This project began late summer 2024. We have over 300 members to load here on their pages. You can search by name, location or by subject matter to find an artist.
Cecy Turner • Texas & Colorado • waow
Cecy Turner is an award-winning artist who works in both watercolor and oil. She prefers to paint en plein air, and does so almost daily since she began spending half of every year in Colorado. The effects of light and atmosphere are her favorite things to capture in paint.
Turner graduated from Vanderbilt University and did post-graduate study in art at University of North Texas. She has additionally studied under numerous accomplished artists in both oil and watercolor
Linda Star Landon • Arizona • waow
Linda Star Landon, has always created art in one form or another. Her oil paintings are distinguished by her signature style use of vivid colors and bold textures created using a palette knife technique.
Landon’s creations have been exhibited at juried art shows and have been recognized as Best of Show and won awards. The artworks are loved by their collectors all over the United States. Some have gone to other countries including Canada and China.
Anne Spoon • Oklahoma • waow
Anne Spoon is a realist oil painter. She has spent the past two decades painting people, places and objects that have a quiet beauty; that are, perhaps, seemingly simple, and often overlooked until painted. Her skillfully painted works have a dreamlike, soft quality that invites the viewer to linger and look more closely. She attended The School of Visual Arts at Bronx, New York.
Shuli Wang • Illinois • waow
Shuli Wang is an accomplished artist residing in the vibrant Chicago metropolitan area. She was born in Inner Mongolia, China. She exhibited exceptional talent and an unwavering passion for the world of drawing and painting from an early age. Wang possesses a remarkable versatility, working fluently with an array of artistic mediums including pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, and oil. Her artistic style can be aptly described as impressionistic realism, where vibrant brushwork often reminiscent of traditional Chinese freehand paintings infuses life into her creations. The subjects of her work are as diverse as her mediums, spanning landscapes, still life, and portraiture.
Terry Denson • Florida • waow
Terry Denson creates paintings that are vibrant and realistic, with just a touch of abstraction. She seeks to capture the dramatic contrast between color saturated subjects and deep shadows.
Denson began her career as a full–time artist in 2003. She was initially self–taught, but has taken opportunities to study in workshops throughout the country with nationally recognized artists, and attended formal drawing instruction at several schools in Maryland, including the Maryland Institute, College of Art.
Sue Wipf • Minnesota • waow
Sue Wipf worked on her parents' farm and spent time pondering the skies and the beauty around her. That experience continues to influence her values and her perspective on the world around her. Her love for nature is expressed in her plein air paintings and studio work. The artworks of Vermeer, Sargent, Turner, and Sorolla have influenced her. She has studied at the Schroeder Studio and taken workshops from other master artists.
Lisa Rico • California • waow
Lisa Rico loves the immediacy of pastels and richness of the color possibilities achievable with them. The face is her favorite subject — specifically, the faces of people from other cultures and countries encountered on her travels. Rico also enjoys featuring local flora and fauna in colorful paintings as well as doing sanguine sketches and quick studies.
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.
Helen F. Howerton • Oklahoma • waow
Helen F. Howerton, a native Tulsan, knew from the age of 8 that art was her life’s career. Drawing birds and animals was a passion that grew into painting, which now also includes sculpture. Taking inspiration from her study of animal anatomy and sketches of nature, Helen shares her individual interpretation of the spirit in each animal.
Christine Obers • California • waow
Christine Obers is a realist artist working in pastel, colored pencils and oils. She creates beautifully sensitive paintings of animals, people, landscapes and still life. She likes to use photographs for her initial inspiration. She then edits and enhances them to create pleasing compositions that create rich emotional connections with her subjects.
Linda Eppinger Johnson • Wyoming • waow
Linda Eppinger Johnson was born and raised on the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The diverse ecosystem influenced her western and botanical paintings, pottery and tiles/murals.
Linda uses her own experiences when creating her art. Sagebrush, wildflowers and even horned toads are in the hills of her front yard and find their way into her paintings and pottery.
Rose Irelan • California • waow
Rose Irelan is inspired by the diverse landscapes of the coast, desert, and mountains. Her paintings capture the energy and changing light of the natural world, using expressive brushwork and a deep appreciation for color. Whether painting the rugged shoreline, the quiet beauty of a desert morning, or towering mountains, she strives to convey the feeling of a moment rather than just a scene.
Betty J. Billups • Idaho • waow
"Betty Jean Billups is a superb Impressionist painter, blessed with the talent to produce rich and colorful paintings of her everyday experiences. She paints powerful works of visual delight and honest truth.
Using a bold brush and solid colors, she paints from her heart and her soul."
— (Mr.)Jean Stern, Director Emeritus, The Irvine Museum