Every work I do is allegorical. Every object in a still life is a symbol. Every landscape is a message about life. My family has been in Texas for more than 150 years, small wonder that the big sky, the vast austere beauty of the American West latches on to me. The self-reliance and integrity required to live in such a remote and challenging land has honed my values. It is no wonder that I return to it time and again. I value endurance and respond intensely to the strong light of the southwest. I look at a clump of cactus and see hope, strength, beauty. My work is about looking farther and looking closer to find the enduring beauty of being true. I am drawn to the implacable revelations of the harsh, glorious, and the remote dry earth of home.

I have long been drawn to the natural world whether it be landscape, flora, or fauna. This is where I find not only great outer beauty but genuine inner peace. It is easy to understand why capturing moments in nature has long been my creative focus. When creating my acrylic or watercolor paintings, I strive to strike a powerful balance between technical precision and emotional depth. To this end I am careful to produce balanced and often dynamic compositions while imparting radiant color and light through the careful use of color theory. I am well known for my use of delicate detail as an accent to my finished works.

Lorraine is an artist whose work embodies the light, mood and atmosphere of the moment, which is why she particularly loves plein air painting. She aims for viewers to feel the emotion in her paintings and encourages them to notice the landscape and people around them in a new way. Her style is impressionistic, characterized by bold brushstrokes, dynamic compositions, and a variety of marks. She paints so that her work remains compelling both from a distance and upon close inspection.

I create art because the process is my meditation and my connection with a power greater than myself. When I see the feeling of a joyful childhood, the beauty of the play of light on a rusty Model A, or the drama of red poppies in early spring, translate from my brush to the physical page, I know that there is a benevolent force at work in me and in the world around me.

Unlike the spoken word, where language can leave a listener feeling like an outsider— visual art has no prerequisites to participate. As such, we as artists have the supreme honor of taking a vision and sharing it with our viewers. When we create, we ask ourselves the ultimate question: Why? What is it about a place, a person, a subject that makes us want to share with our viewers. What do we want them to experience? Do we want to dance? Do we want to fight?

My work begins with a moment in the natural world — a quiet encounter, a held gaze,
or a fleeting gesture from an animal that lingers long after the moment has passed.
These experiences stay with me, and they become the stories I bring into my
paintings and sculptures.

Sheryl Knight is an award-winning plein air artist.She is also known as the “Central Coast Vineyard Artist” and is best known for her vibrant oil paintings and strong expressive style.

Mary Frankel grew up in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains and studied architecture and design. In her early thirties, she moved with her family to London, where she traveled extensively throughout Europe in the incredibly rich artistic environment there. Frankel's artistic expression and desire was thus ignited into a passion for painting the landscapes and people passing through her world. Frankel now divides her time between Estes Park, Colorado and Texas.

Jan DeLipsey is an artist whose love of the land lives within each of her paintings. Her landscape work is elegantly honest. Simply put, Jan's paintings bring the viewer a feeling of intimate reverence of nature's quiet beauty though her language of light and color.

Julie Gowing Hayes creates oil and watercolor paintings of things and scenes found mostly in nature in a representational style sometimes with hints of impressionism. Growing up on a farm in Southwest Iowa was instrumental in her development of a deep-rooted love for the outdoors.

Scenes of the American west, Places Stephanie Burk loves, with animals she adores and people she loves. Between two points of home in Texas and her cabin in Colorado, she paints until her heart is full all the landscapes and culture of the area. I

"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.”

“Light Falling across an object, tree, beloved pet. . . .

The broken color and textures created with pastels and oils. . . .

These are the things that excite me, and call me to paint them. I hope they excite you too.” Addren Doss

Brenda Morgan works from her studio in Dardanelle, Arkansas.

She has always gravitated toward the western genre and artists such as James Bama and Carl Brenders inspired her to paint realism. Having a love of equine subjects, adding cowboys, cowgirls and Indigenous Americans seemed a natural progression.

Vicki Pedersen has a life-long passion for art.  She feels so fortunate that she is living the dream -- painting what she loves.  She focuses mostly on painting the American West -- cowboys and cowgirls, Native Americans, and the beautiful landscapes of deserts, mountains, and everything in between. 

Mejo’s studio walls are covered in paintings of cowboys and their horses, prize cattle, and agave cactus. She has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, costume manager for traveling Broadway shows, and a courtroom sketch artist. Her inner voice said, ‘Paint. Run away and paint,’and since settling in New Mexico, she has found endless inspiration in cowboys, ranches and the landscape but then again, she has always loved horses and animals.

“It is the seeking of the soul that inspires me to create. The connection with the incredible beauty and calm of nature is what my collectors say they love in my paintings. While painting I move from observing the light as it defines an object into a place that eludes time and space. This is when I feel a connection to our Creation because the scene I am capturing is filled with such beauty it makes my soul sing. When a collector expresses what I emotionally felt while creating the painting I know I have succeeded. “- Amy Evans