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.
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.
Lori Cusick • Texas • waow
Lori Cusick loves to create art of the land. Her style is colorful and stylized. She received her Bachelors of Fine Art degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Her process begins on location with oil paints and canvas in tow. Leaving the studio behind and working in the great outdoors provides and endless source of inspiration.
Janel Maher • Tennessee • waow
Janel Maher's sculptures are known for capturing the heart, soul and very essence of one of our greatest treasures — the horse. Maher's sculptures can be found among collections throughout the United States, Europe and South America with two perpetual trophies in England and South Africa.
Elizabeth Sage • Arizona & Colorado • waow
Elizabeth Sage honed her self-taught ability to see and render the most difficult of images and precious of moments through a corporate career in graphic design for over 20 years. In 2000 she changed her calling and passion to full time professional fine artist, creating powerful imagery and stories on canvas.
Dana Lombardo • Oklahoma • waow
Dana Lombardo resides by the shores of Grand Lake in Northeast Oklahoma. There she draws endless inspiration from the picturesque surrounding landscape and the vibrant local culture. Her artistic works manifest a deep-rooted affection for the land. She also depicts Native American themes in which she endeavors to preserve and share the depth of their heritage.
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.
Maria D’Angelo • New Jersey • waow
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 • Arizona • waow
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..
Shelly J. Cox • Florida • waow
Shelly J. Cox is a contemporary realist oil painter who lives and works in the horse community of Jupiter Farms, Florida, USA. She is a graduate of the Art Institute, Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a degree in commercial illustration, but she is a self-taught oil painter. Cox diligently works regularly with master artist mentors to advance her painting skills.
Amanda Cowan • Wyoming • waow
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 • 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.
Sherry Cobb-Kelleher • Colorado • waow
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.
Natalie Campbell • California • waow
Natalie Campbell captures the beauty of the world around her, primarily working with pastels on black paper. She infuses each piece with the same passion and energy that drives her. Despite being new to the art world, she is already a nationally award-winning artist and has shown her work locally, nationally and internationally. Natalie looks forward to continuing to exhibit her artwork around the country
Betty J. Billups • Idaho • waow
"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
Beth Zink • Arizona • waow
Beth has a BA in Art from Bethany College, and studied drawing and painting at the graduate level. She has enjoyed teaching painting to adults for over 20 years.
Her paintings hang in numerous private and corporate collections, hospitals, restaurants and country clubs around the country.
She has been featured in Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine, Southwest Art, American Art Collector, Images Magazine, So Scottsdale and many other publications.
Jenifer Cline • Colorado • waow
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.
Colette Claros • Texas • waow
Collette Claros feels a deep passion for painting people and conveying emotion through her art. She is especially drawn to painting the human face and form. It is thrilling when that face becomes real and starts pushing through the canvas.
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.
Victoria Castillo • Texas • waow
Victoria Castillo is a figurative painter whose work focuses on women in light-infused settings, usually gardens and intimate interiors. She studied painting at Washington & Lee University and at the University of Maryland, graduating with honors. After college, Victoria has lived and worked in both Europe and the US. Most recently, she completed an intensive, classical, live model painting and drawing program at Studio Escalier in France.
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.