Kadra Nevitt is a Kansas-based artist known for her evocative works centered on Western themes, outdoor life, natural landscapes and animals —most notably horses.  She blends heartfelt subject matter with technically strong pastel and watercolor work to evoke the beauty and spirit of the American West.  She is self-taught and has developed a reputation for life–like portrayals that lean toward soft realism with expressive technique. 

Nori Thorne is an award–winning pastelist celebrated for her depictions of the people, artifacts, lifestyle and the land of the American Southwest.  She works to capture a strong sense of place and secrets revealed through the mastery of her medium — capturing changing light and color with formidable drawing skill.  She is undaunted by the challenges of working en plein air to render her desert scenes.  Cayoneering, which always calls for endurance while packing in her pastels and panels, is just part of the joy of making art about this rugged region.   She is equally at home with revealing the unique beauty of the lifestyle and peoples of the American Southwest with sensitive feel and authenticity.

Jude Tolar's art is lyrical and representational.  She celebrates beauty and joy in the world.  She's known mainly for floral and tree portraits outdoors and glass subjects indoors. She prefers to work from life, using mostly Terry Ludwig soft pastels on Art Spectrum ColourFix paper.  She began using pastels as a way to study color and work easily en plein air, and immediately loved the results.  Tolar has exhibited in galleries, invitational group and solo shows; her work is in collections across the United States and abroad. She also demonstrates her pastel techniques and teaches pastel workshops on various subjects.

Teanna Kurtz creates pastel paintings of landscapes, light, water, skies and wildlife, primarily on suede substrate.  She loves pastel for the available rich pigments and the expressive quality she is able to achieve with them.  Her goals for her artworks are purity of form and technique while capturing atmospheric moments of peace, serenity and calm in nature.

Reneé Marz Mullis is mesmerized by the pastel stick’s strength of color and brilliancy.   She paints southwestern landscapes, interiors and exteriors, florals, and still lifes, both in the studio and en plein air.  She most enjoys the multitude of challenges in conveying a strong sense of luminosity and atmosphere in her work. 

Texas pastel artist, Anna Lisa Leal, honors the fierce beauty of the botanical wonders of Texas, and the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts; as well as the wildlife and found objects found in these regions. The textures and tenacity of life in these harsh areas inspire raw, radiant stories painted from her heart to represent the spirit of the American Southwest. 

Carol Strock Wasson is a landscape artist known primarily for her work in the pastel medium.   She also works in oil, monotype prints and watercolor.   Much of her work spotlights the rural area she lives in.  She focuses on color, shape, and design in the plein air tradition as well as in the studio. 

Dagmar Galleithner-Steiner is a German born artist specializing in horse and dog portraits, and abstract expressionism.  She moved to the United States in 2013 and found artistic success with her realistic portraits of dogs and horses.  She was commissioned to paint the official portraits of six Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s Pacific Classic winners. 

Barby Schacher is a Western Fine Artist whose work is deeply rooted in the traditions of ranch life, horses, and the rugged spirit of the American West.  She was raised in a world where horseback riding, rodeos, and cattle drives shaped her experiences.  She channels these influences into her original, detailed, pastel paintings of Western life that are both authentic and heartfelt.  These artworks tell the timeless stories of everyday ranch life, celebrating both its beauty and grit.

Laura Pollak is an award–winning, fulltime, professional fine artist.  She works primarily in oil and pastel.  Her art practice explores landscapes of the earth and constellations, as a continual search for her place in the universe.  Her artworks run the gamut from realism to explorations of the abstract.

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.