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.

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. 

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Karen Ann Hitt • Florida • waow

Karen Ann Hitt is an award-winning artist, classically trained at Parson’s School of Design in New York.  That classic background is ever evident in her style, along with her love of capturing the figure and the effects of light in all of her scenes. Her paintings are noted to accentuate the effects of light, adding to their luminosity.   Her landscapes and skyscapes reflect the essence of the landmark.

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Jane Coulombe • California • waow

Jane Coulombe is an oil painter specializing in landscape and seascape scenes.  She has spent most of her life in Southern California.  Her love for this golden land is reflected in her paintings of its land and sea.    One can feel the peace of early California and the beauty of the open land that remains, which she feels is our responsibility to preserve for future generations to enjoy.

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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.

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Susan De’Armond • California • waow

Susan De’Armond turned her passion for art into a serious pursuit of a fine art career in 2007.  Plein air painting takes her back to memories of trekking through the woods on family outings, or memories of her grandmother tending her garden filled with her irises and lilacs.  When De’Armond gets out into the woods or the wild, she says it feels like coming home. 

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Heather Coen • Arizona • waow

Heather Coen is most renowned for her mastery of western wildlife, desert, mountain and water images.  Many layers of oil paint or pastel go into her works, creating a third dimension in each original piece.  The subject matter changes and varies from a study of a single flower to Alaskan wide–open expanses.

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Melanie Chambers Hartman • Arizona • waow

A Texas native, Tina Bohlman has used her home state as both the inspiration and the canvas for her art.  A self-taught artist, Bohlman is well versed in several mediums but favors watercolor and oil to create breath–taking plein air paintings and brilliant rural landscapes. 

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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. 

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Lani Browning • Maryland • waow

Lani Browning, an award winning plein air oil painter for over twenty– five years, is known for her distinctive skill with colors, and the quiet elegance and soft tonalism of her paintings. Her travels around the country and abroad, and her love of the land have contributed to her focus on the landscape. Her years of experience show in her confident and mature brushwork. 

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Tina Bohlman • Texas • waow

A Texas native, Tina Bohlman has used her home state as both the inspiration and the canvas for her art.  A self-taught artist, Bohlman is well versed in several mediums but favors watercolor and oil to create breath–taking plein air paintings and brilliant rural landscapes. 

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Denise Horne-Kaplan • North Carolina & Florida • waow

Denise Horne-Kaplan started her professional career in 1983.  She has participated in exhibits and juried shows — over 74 national and International juried shows and eight solo shows to date.  She is in six international publications, including being a featured centerfold Artist with thirteen paintings in the 1999 Winter Issue of Watercolor magazine.  Horne-Kaplan is a signature member, one of only 130 in the country, of the Miniature Artists of America. 

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Bets Cole • Oregon • waow

Bets Cole sells and shows her artwork nationwide. Working primarily in the plein air tradition, she paints outside in the landscape with immediacy and openness. She welcomes the challenge of exploring and painting unfamiliar places. Her choice of medium – whether acrylic, watercolor, gouache or charcoal – is dictated by the subject matter, colors, and quality of light specific to each location.

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