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.

Debbie Hughbanks . Washington . waow

Debbie Hughbanks is a professional artist specializing in wildlife, equine & domestic animal paintings, as well as figurative and western themed pieces. Painting most often in pastel or acrylic she still finds time to explore other avenues including scratchboard and mixed media work. Hughbanks is an artist that is passionate about the creation of art and finds her inspiration all around her studio located in northeastern Washington State.  Fascinated by animals, nature and interesting people she meets along the way there is never a shortage of subject matter to spark her creative flame. The connection she feels for the subjects she paints, as well as the passion and joy she experiences in the actual creation of the work, is evident in each unique completed piece of art.

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Priya Ahlawat . Pennsylvania . waow

Priya was born in India and currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has lived and studied in the United States, Asia and Europe and holds multiple degrees in Dentistry and Orthodontics from renowned American and international Universities. Priya has studied with many carefully selected internationally and nationally acclaimed artists including Shane Wolf and Daud Akhriev. Her quest for knowledge, love of reading and extensive travels through Europe, North America, Central America and Asia since a young age provide a well-grounded foundation from which her artworks are inspired and created.

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Ran Wu . California . waow

Ran was born in Taiwan. At a young age Ran showed an interest in the arts, so her parents sent her to study drawing, watercolor, and Chinese brush painting. As Ran grew into a young adult, she moved to the United States and eventually settled in Northern California. After putting her art on hold to build a career for herself and her family in the corporate world, Ran found the opportunity to return to her previous passion of painting and pursued becoming a fine artist.

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Leah Wiedemer . Florida . waow

Every artist will tell you that they have loved to draw from the time they could hold a crayon. I’m no different. Every artist will tell you that they have loved to draw from the time they could hold a crayon. I’m no different. 

I remember when my cousin, a couple of years my junior, won an art award in his elementary school. It was then that I decided a real artist was some sort of phenom. Not something I was born to. It didn’t stop me from drawing, but it did make me think a career in art was not something in my future. …

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Debbie Pounders . Florida . waow

Debbie Pounders, a self taught artist from Tennessee, transforms her visions into immersive works of art that captivate viewers and collectors with their realism and innovation. Each piece begins with her unique process of mentally capturing the subject through her photography and painting in her mind before she even approaches the canvas.

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Elizabeth Ming Cooper. New Mexico.waow

Daily, Beth finds a dozen potential paintings in her visual world, which is a great blessing.  The art of seeing and helping others to see and grasp the beauty of life’s small fleeting moments is the desire for her art work.

Whether it is sunlight glowing through a flower petal, golden backlight on a child at play or the soft glow of evening light coming through the trees on a mesa or mountain top, these captured moments and slices of life are the whispers of a higher power and what makes up life itself.  Through painting she hopes to evoke a memory or a feeling to the viewer and share the emotion of a slice of time.

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Gina Stonecircle. Montana . waow

From Custom Hardware and Home fittings to unique Metal Art and Mixed Media sculpture, everything from Twisted Tree Forge is Crafted with Design and Quality in mind, here under the Big Sky of Montana.

Growing up in Montana, steeped in the history of the West, Gina developed a deep appreciation for the art that depicted the rich culture of this part of the the world. Gina melds natural elements with modern mediums to create unique, one of a kind pieces that reflect the way of life in Montana and living on the land. Gina works primarily in wood, stone, and epoxy resin, and she collaborates with her partner, a master blacksmith who adds metalwork to many of their pieces.

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Karen Glancy. California . waow

A native of  North Dakota  Karen grew up where the prairies with there wild open spaces and clean blue skies

 developed her love of the undeveloped landscape.

It was enhanced with a move to Arizona and then New Mexico with there magical red vistas. Life then took her to Coastal California where she also fell in love with painting the water. 

Karen had the need to create from and early age and has worked in many mediums including ceramics, china painting, water color ,pastels and oilseed acrylics. 

She lives in Carpinteria California  and is continually amazed at the beauty of a beach side atmospheric view.

 

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Tara Kemp . Oregon . waow

“I strive to preserve the beauty in nature through my work. It is something of an act of preservation and in a way an act of rebellion to bring to the viewers attention the beauty of our endangered natural world.”

A “values” painter, Tara loves attuning to shadow and highlight, noticing the way a color changes as it moves into shadow or light, and reflects colors from it’s surroundings. 

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Jody Martin . Texas. waow

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Jody is the daughter of the late Conny Martin, artist, and C.B. Martin, builder, photographer, and watercolorist. Always passionate about art, Jody never doubted that she would become an artist. She earned her degree in art from Abilene Christian University, and went on to study painting under Hall of Fame artists, Daniel Greene and Emily Guthrie Smith. She values most the education she received from her mother, Conny Martin. Under Conny's tutelage she learned classical drawing and contemporary design. 

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Lynn Shield . Montana . waow

Lynn is a contemporary Western artist known for her vibrant and colorful paintings that capture the beauty of wildlife, horses, cowgirls and cowboys, and the western lifestyle. Her passion for art started at a young age, and throughout her career, she used her creative energy as a marketing professional in the aerospace industry and later in her own small marketing and web design firm.

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Mary Frankel . Colorado/Texas

Mary Frankel grew up in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains and studied architecture and design. In her early thirties, she moved with her family to London, where she traveled extensively throughout Europe in the incredibly rich artistic environment there. Frankel's artistic expression and desire was thus ignited into a passion for painting the landscapes and people passing through her world. Frankel now divides her time between Estes Park, Colorado and Texas.

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