Barbara Meikle is an artist who paints the simple world outside of her door in Tesuque, New Mexico. Meikle has been an artist from childhood, sketching the horses she loved and took care of in order to ride. After earning a BA in painting and printmaking at the University of Denver and studying watercolor at Cambridge University in England, she returned to New Mexico in 1990 to pursue her dream of owning a gallery. Barbara Meikle’s bright and vibrant work includes horses elegantly in motion or the expression of whimsical donkey or the dynamic beauty of the Western landscape.  Barbara’s artistic success has allowed her to give back to the animal community she loves by donating to equine rescues and animal shelters throughout the Southwest, including Equine Spirit Sanctuary in Taos and the New Mexico Wildlife Center in Española. 

Painting the Still Wild West...

Lynn is an award-winning Western artist who enjoys capturing the beauty and traditions of California ranch life. She is co-founder, president emerita, and director of communications for the Pastel Society of Southern California; vice-president, exhibition chair and Signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast; juried member of the Pastel Society of America; and a member of the California Art Club and Pacific Arts Group. Lynn is also the founder and past director of the Rejoice in Art! Fine Art Fair & Exhibition (2015-2019) held in Redondo Beach, California. As a four-year invited artist to the Tehachapi Arts Exhibition and Sale (2022-2025), Lynn's work has been featured in Western Art Collector and American Art Collector magazines. Her paintings have been acquired by many collectors over the past two decades.

Born on a farm in Fremont, Michigan, Kristy McNelly’s early days were spent riding horses and playing in the woods along the creek. Art has been a long pastime since childhood. It is that love for nature and animals that is still carried into her work today as an oil painting artist. An active volunteer and director of the AgriCultural Museum and Arts Center in Boerne, Texas. Since 2002, Kristy has been enjoying putting on events and antique tractor pulls. Kristy can also be seen on back roads around Texas driving her Seafoam Green antique 1950 Ford Truck called “Seabiscuit”.

The artist was born in a large stone mansion in Michigan, situated between Chicago and Detroit, and grew up in the Midwest surrounded by creativity from an early age. Her father painted, while her mother danced—fueled by strong coffee and a love of chocolate. Art was not a discovery later in life; it was woven into her beginnings.

Ally Morgan’s work is inspired by her reverence for the natural world and humanity’s complex relationship with it. With an emphasis on the female perspective, she explores the intersection of humanity, animality and spirituality.

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. 

The western artist, Susie Varner says as a child with ADD it was difficult to be still, but put a pencil in her hand and she could sit for hours! Some might even say Susie was born with a pencil in her hand, for as long as she can remember she longed for a horse, drawing them was the next best thing. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma; #7 out of ten children in a two bedroom house, it was often chaotic and a spot in a corner with scrap paper and a pencil gave her solace.  Susie says there was so much love in that little house, it taught her to seek God given talents and she feels blessed to have found her gift. Much of her inspiration comes from living in the country and owning horses. As a child, she copied art from western artists, Charles Russell and Frederic Remington and feels that is where her love for western art comes from. 

BIO – Born in a small Kansas town, Shanelle Deater discovered her love of art early in her father’s paintbox. The paints, powders, and mediums were too fascinating to pass up. Shanelle Deater is now an accomplished, classically trained artist, a member of Oil Painters of America, Plein Air Artists Colorado, the Guild of Nature and Science Illustrators, the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists. Ms. Deater paints landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and botanical subjects. She enjoys the challenge of painting in a traditional manner for its high level of precision, standards and subtlety.

Diane Burchette-Gomez is a graduate of Parsons’ School of Design for Illustration and Eugene Lang College for Social Psychology. After college she worked for her family’s Gourmet Food and Gift company, Aunt Sally’s Praline Shops, in New Orleans, Louisiana; meanwhile, creating art for herself.

38 years of life experiences led Diane to oil painting. “The feel of my brush gliding across a taut canvas, like it was ice skating, is intoxicating.” She became obsessed and quit her retail job to paint full time. 

Teresa Lynn Johnson, an artist based in New Mexico, has been refining her oil painting expertise for many years, with a focus on western landscapes and both wild and domestic animals. Teresa was born in Coleman, Texas, and spent her formative years living on a secluded four-hundred-acre farm, where she engaged with animals and explored nature daily. This environment fostered her love for wildlife and natural settings.

Born and educated in New York, Cindy has been painting as long as she’s been holding a paintbrush. She did her first commission at age 15 and after a long career in IT, she is now painting full time as she travels around the world with her partner Kevin in their Jeep. Getting off-road enables her to access unspoiled places that few will ever experience. Her goal is to share that beauty and inspire others.

Judy is a fine artist working in the mediums of oil, pastel, and ink,  and live in the beautiful state of Colorado. She has been drawing or painting since she was a child in Tennessee, finally earning an art degree in her late thirties, but didn't pursue painting professionally until the last 25 years when she retired from a career in Education. Tosday she is pleased to have earned the recognition of  Associate Member Women Artists of the West, Master Signature Member  of the Pastel Society of Colorado and a Signature Member of the Arizona Pastel Artists Association.  Her art is exhibited in galleries, juried art exhibitions throughout the United States, and on her web site.

Jessie Rasche is a professional artist who paints in her Brookings home studio, and out on dusty farm roads. 

Growing up in Seattle as the only child of an artist, Jessie got a lot of encouragement for her creative endeavors, and studied Fine Art at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. 

Even so, a career path as an artist wasn’t clear and Jessie went back to school in Psychology and general sciences before a short career in social work, and then as an illustrator and media developer.

16 years ago, with family encouragement, Jessie followed her dreams of becoming a professional artist, and began selling her small paintings online and through galleries.

"Art is powerful and the creation of art is a means of expressing and invoking power. As an artist, I am not always aware of how my work might affect a viewer. In fact, as I am painting, I can only be sure of my feelings and reactions toward my piece.”