Leslie Kirchner is an award–winning artist who lives and works in the rural mountains of California.  The landscape, animals, and atmosphere of the west have always been inspiring to her. She feels it important to connect with and portray each animal's uniqueness and individual personality, and convey that to the viewer through her paintings.  She strives to capture a sense of the life and movement of her subjects through the exploration of color, composition, and sensitive brushwork.

Donna Smyth is an oil painter.  She is inspired by nature's beauty and most especially the horse.  She developed her craft studying under the tutelage of Jeff Watts at his atelier for six years. 

 Carol Heiman-Greene is inspired by all aspects of nature and all of her paintings are based on personal reference.   Life and Light are central to Carol’s work.  Her joy comes from capturing even the smallest of moments to those that are the most dramatic that nature has to offer.

Gloria Chadwick finds joy in the wildlife sketching possibilities at the world–famous zoos, aquariums and wonderful coastline of the San Diego, California area, of which she is a native.  She is a master painter working in oils, acrylics, and watercolors. 

Chadwick is a dedicated enthusiast of wildlife conservation and delights to create art that brings attention to the animals—especially endangered species.  Her works have been accepted in many juried shows and festivals and have won numerous awards. 

Barbara Gerard-Mitchell is an artist who works primarily in oils, acrylics, and watercolors.  Her subjects include landscape, wildlife, equine, and the western life-style. She is a graduate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she received an Associate of Fine Arts Degree.  She has continued her studies with many renowned master painters. 

Joye DeGoede’s works juxtapose reality with fantasy, inspiring the viewer to see the fun in the mundane and the vast opportunities for joy in our everyday world.  She loves painting the surrealistic mixture of animals imitating human habits and in their natural habitat.  Wildlife conservation art is near and dear to her heart.  DeGoede’s art has taken an unanticipated fun turn.  She is very serious with her subject matter and message. Life is too short not to laugh, smile and enjoy life.  She didn't want people to perceive the JoyEful Party Animals ® as drunken animals. They are joyful creatures on this grand adventure of life.

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 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.

Sharon Markwardt is a life-long artist with a Fine Art degree and a Biology minor.  She grew up in Texas, the daughter of an Artist and an Engineer, and now enjoys an artist's life in Santa Fe, NM. The colorful style for which she is known emerged in the last decade or so, and paralleled her entrance into horsemanship, with its associated injuries and challenges. She laughingly credits her mare with “throwing her into western art!" since her colorful style emerged after a fall. She had the courage to get back in the saddle, and eventually learned the value of calm assertiveness. A new boldness entered her art, and she moved from watercolor to oils.  Her color perception altered, as did her subject matter: stronger, brighter, more Western.  Sharon enjoys pushing her colors and designs while retaining realism and attention to detail, injecting humor whenever possible.

Christine Drewyer takes great joy in painting the powerful tranquility of the Rural American landscape or the beautiful, peaceful beasts of our planet.  She hopes we will always reside in a world where we can enjoy these simple pleasures.  She seeks to create art that will transport the viewer beyond the senses, free of thought and self-consciousness.  The paintings then become an Instrument through which the viewer and the artist glimpse the joyful oneness of which we are all a part.

Maria D’Angelo is a nationally recognized artist celebrated for her emotionally resonant and exquisitely detailed pencil and colored pencil drawings of horses and wildlife. Her work is defined by a profound ability to capture not just the likeness, but the soul of her subjects, creating portraits that seem to breathe, move, and live on paper.

Rose Collins was enthralled with art, painting, and the western culture from her early childhood.  She relocated to Tucson, Arizona when she retired from her practice as a psychologist in New York.  She picked up a paintbrush and took a leap of faith into the unknown. That began a soul-searching decade of self-discovery, mentorship and successes in the very competitive art world, and paved the way to gallery representation. She loves being an established local Tucson Wildlife and Contemporary Southwest Artist.. 

 Western and wildlife artist, Amanda Cowan, spends her time outdoors drawing the horses, cows and any wildlife that she comes into contact with.  She is self taught, painting in watercolors and oils.  Her art is in private collections in Korea, Australia, Canada, France and the United States.  

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.

Each day is a gift that Cobb-Kelleher treasures. She strives to capture those special but otherwise missed moments of ranch life — moments that poignantly highlight the struggle for that tenuous and beautiful balance between the world as it is and the world as we wish it to be.

"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

It is the connection, the joy – the reluctance to leave the scene that inspires Jenifer Cline to paint.  She considers the sense of place, the effects of light and the linkage of heart and soul to the earth as the most important aspects of her work.  She paints exclusively in oils en plein air. 

Andi Burnum finds herself continually drawing inspiration from her love for the American West. She grew up on the high plains of Kansas where she spent a majority of her time outside, in and around nature and her family's cows.  Burnam’s love for animals, both domestic and wild, knows no bounds. Her pieces are usually a mixture of moments that she has loved, combined with her need to create semi-realistic and detailed art.

Art has been a lifetime passion for Tricia Bass. Her love of the great outdoors and particularly the Rocky Mountains, has led her to a career as a plein air painter.

Roberta Barnes, a native of Nebraska, lives with her husband on a ranch next to the Nebraska National Forest. The artist shares her love of the landscape through her works in oils.  She finds an endless source of inspiration in the landscapes, not only in her “roots” from the Columbus area but also in the Sandhills region of Nebraska.  Her work is a part of both public and private collections.