Oil painter, JILL BANKS, teaches multiple classes a week over three semesters each year; exhibits at  top fine art festivals; sends work off to juried exhibitions; paints in juried and invitational plein air competitions; takes on a small number of portrait commissions; and travels for personal painting trips and inspiration. Stylistically, she continues to evolve from realism with feeling to impressionism with even more emotion and simplification.

Born in Washington state but raised in Montana, Marcia can't remember a time when she wasn't sketching even as a child. Some of her fondest memories were trips to rural Montana or to her grandmother's cabin on the lake. "I often found myself drawn to the  majesty of the early morning and late evening light always surrounding the snowcapped mountains," Ballowe reflects.

 Marcia Ballowe’s creativity flourished with the encouragement of her husband, and family, as she attended multiple workshops with notable national artists: Irving Shapiro, Scott Christensen, John MacDonald, Marc Hanson, Matt Smith, to mention a few. But she felt the biggest impact on her work came through plein air painting where she learned to capture the fleeting light and mood of a place in her art.  Photographs never held the values and hues she could see outdoors. 

Barbara Archer-Baldwin, PSA, MC-IAPS, APAA, PSWC

A Master Medallion holder in the International Association of Pastel Societies, Barbara Archer-Baldwin and her husband John Baldwin relocated to Tucson in February, 2024 after living in Florida for over 25 years. She is an academically schooled professional artist with training at Rhode Island School of Design, Philadelphia University of the Arts, and Temple University's Tyler School of Fine Arts. She has been represented by the Four Corners Gallery in the Tucson Desert Art Museum since May 2024. Her work has been juried into three shows at the Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ, since her relocation to Arizona. Painting the southwest has really expanded her muse.

Risa Waldt, a native Tucsonan, I grew up in the desert. While horseback riding along the Rillito river, I soaked up a vision of the desert that pursued me until I began painting to express it. In 1973 I began a love affair with light, using watercolor. I love to paint the Grand Canyon, wildlife, and historical features of Arizona.

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.

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.

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.

I was born and raised in New Jersey. Even though I was brought up in a small New Jersey town, I have always been a lover of all art forms of the west. As a child, and the daughter of an artist, I could always be found creating art throughout my childhood. I felt destined to become an artist, and it has been my privilege to work in the arts during my lifetime.

Much as a poet uses words to express spirit, emotion, and beauty of thought, pastel artist Virginia Kamhi paints painterly realistic paintings that convey the poetry, imaginative power, and rhythms of the natural wonders that surround her.

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.

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.

 Sandy Applegate

Sandy’s artwork deals with shape, color and ideas, definitely with her own version of reality.  She works primarily in acrylic or watercolor with pen with ink. Another medium is oil-based ink in which she creates Monoprints on paper or canvas, a method learned from Shy Rabbit’s Michael Coffee – his reductive-ink process.  She often incorporates mixed media to create unusual effects.   She likes to have several series of different subject matter in the works at one time. This helps to keep her images and ideas fresh and lively. 

“My love for oil painting incorporates my love for color, light, landscape, and the oil paints themselves. Each painting is an original composition of unique western vistas, places I have been to, and return to, again and again." Susan Slomski Fine Art

Karen has been a professional artist for over 35 years having studied under master instructors in college.  Karen’s love and ability to convey the emotion of her western and wildlife paintings has earned her artistic awards and regional acclaim

As a distinguished wildlife and western painter whose artistic repertoire includes oils, pastels, inks, and mixed media. Through her art, she strives to capture the essence of nature, creating a reflection of her personal vision—a vision that is deeply inspired by the serene yet raw landscapes and the majestic creatures that inhabit them. Her works explore the symbiotic relationship between the natural world and the rugged spirit of the American West, inviting viewers to share in her appreciation of nature's beauty.

​

Valeria Yost is passionate about her artwork. She has created works of art since she could hold a pencil. She believes she was given a gift from her creator, and she loves sharing it. Her love of horses, then and now, are still favorites. She also loves to paint the wildlife that surrounds her Idaho home. In the last few years, she has punched up the color and added Native American themes and abstract design combining them into new exciting paintings. Her love of nature shines through in all of her paintings.

​

“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. 

My art journey began as a child and has been a constant throughout my life. Although I received my BFA in College, I did not start my full-time career as an artist until later in life as my earlier career was in the corporate world. I am now focusing on my new path as a portrait artist that specializes in equine and canine art.

My favorite shoes are hiking boots.

For years I've explored the wildernesses of the Southwest, hiking, backpacking, hang gliding and mountain biking - interacting with our wild places up close and in person. This has profoundly influenced my work.  I believe we are incomplete without a connection to, and appreciation of, the natural world, and that we should cherish and protect it. 

Leah Lucas was raised in southern Alberta, Canada.  From early childhood she reveled in the freedom to explore her world on horseback. She would forever be informed by miles of flat unending 360-degree views, covered with expansive blue skies, butted against the imposing Rockies in the distance. Developing a deep connection with the natural world, fostered by a profound love and understanding of horses, led to her life’s passion. Leah has spent her life raising, training, and showing these magnificent beasts; developing a thriving practice devoted to healing horses with physical and/or behavioral imbalances.

Ms Koerber spent many years in the commercial illustration world and has recently turned to creating fine art paintings and winning awards for her work.