210 W. MARKET STREET
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78205
MARCH 28 & 29
MARCH 30 – MAY 11
It is with great excitement that I welcome you to the Briscoe Western Art Museum and our annual Night of Artists Exhibition, Live Auction & Sale! This event has grown into one of the most celebrated gatherings of Western art, bringing together incredible creativity, unmatched talent, and a shared passion for the history and culture of the American West.
This year marks a pivotal moment for Night of Artists as we continue to strengthen, celebrate and expand our traditions while introducing new elements that elevate the experience for everyone involved.
We’re thrilled to unveil our inaugural Small Works Sale, a special addition designed to showcase smaller, yet equally powerful pieces of Western art. This new feature provides a unique opportunity for collectors to connect with works that capture the same spirit and depth as larger-scale creations.
We also proudly welcome Tim Newton, Curator of Night of Artists and Special Exhibitions, whose vision brings new perspectives and energy to this year’s exhibition. Alongside a roster of new and returning artists, the gallery walls are lled with compelling works that highlight the diverse stories and perspectives of the American West
Unprecedented Support
This year’s Night of Artists is already breaking records, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our sponsors and supporters. We are especially grateful to our 2025 Presenting Sponsor, Wyatt Ranches, as well as our Museum Purchase Award Sponsor, Mr. and Mrs. Robert “Cowboy Bob” Miller, and the Klesse Foundation and the Plum Foundation | Debbie and John T. Montford, who continue to champion the legacy of this event.
Proceeds from Night of Artists allow the Briscoe Western Art Museum to grow its impact, enabling dynamic exhibitions, engaging programming, and educational opportunities that reach children, students, and families throughout the year.
Gratitude for Our Community
This extraordinary event would not be possible without the dedication and support of so many:
The Artists: Your work breathes life into the stories of the American West, capturing its beauty, spirit, and complexity.
The Sponsors: Your unwavering commitment fuels the success of Night of Artists, ensuring this celebration of Western art reaches new heights.
The Collectors and Enthusiasts: Your passion for Western art and its stories sustains the legacy of this uniquely American genre.
The Briscoe Team: From our Board Chair Barry Hendler and the Board of Directors to the museum sta and volunteers, your hard work and dedication make it all possible.
Thank you for being part of this remarkable celebration. Together, we honor the art, history, and culture of the American West, ensuring its legacy lives on for future generations.
Here’s to a memorable 24th Annual Night of Artists! I look forward to seeing you in the galleries.
Liz Jackson Briscoe Western Art Museum President & CEO
WESTERN ART PRESENTING SPONSOR
WESTERN ART TITLE SPONSORS
Klesse Foundation • The Plum Foundation | Debbie and John T. Montford
NIGHT OF ARTISTS MUSEUM PURCHASE AWARD SPONSOR
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Miller | “Cowboy Bob”
WESTERN ART PATRON SPONSORS
Mr. and Mrs. Marrs McLean Bowman • Briscoe Ranch, Inc. • Jan McCaleb Elliott and Jessica Elliott Middleton Jinny and David Mullins
WESTERN ART COLLECTOR SPONSORS
American Lumber | Laura and Barry Hendler • Valerie and Jack Guenther • Abigail and George Kampmann, Jr.
Bonnie and John Korbell • Luther King Capital Management • Sue and Bob McClane | Mary Nelson
Muriel F. Siebert Foundation • The Ralston Family Foundation • Ruthie and John Russell Dr. Gregory and Mrs. Carole Thompson • Joan and Reed Williams
WESTERN ART GARDEN SPONSORS
Gloria and Fully Clingman • Gates Mineral Company • IBC Bank • In Honor of James McMahon
Robert Oliver | Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum • Scott Petty Foundation • Texas Capital Bank Courtney and Mark Watson, Jr. | The Watson Foundation
WESTERN ART UNDERWRITERS
Art of the West • Margaret and D.B. Briscoe • Dullnig Ranches • Fine Art Connoisseur Hindes Fine Art • Klesse Foundation • KreagerMitchell Attorneys at Law • Theresa and Fred McComas Kim and Richard Nunley • Robert Oliver | Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum • Sanger & Altgelt • Southwest Art Tale to Tell Communications • Western Art & Architecture • Western Art Collector • Dr. Eli Whitney Williams-Chadwick Family Charitable Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation
AUCTION SPONSOR
Vogt Auctions
WESTERN ART FAVOR SPONSORS
Greg Beecham • Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey • Scott Christensen • Todd Connor • Grant Redden
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
McLean Bowman • Dan Briggs • Dolph “D.B.” Briscoe IV • Jay Clingman • Robert A. Dullnig
Erika González • Henry B. Gonzalez III • Brandon Grossman • Jack Guenther • Jose “Che” Guerra
Barry Hendler • Derrick Howard • Abigail Kampmann • William “Bill” Klesse • Howard “Hal” Lenox
Nancy Loe ler • Jane Macon • Kenneth J. Maverick • Rob McClane • Jessica Elliott Middleton
Debbie Montford • John T. Montford • John Phillip Santos • Mike Sohn • Wesley “Reed” Williams
Bradford Wyatt
ADVISORY MEMBERS
J.P. Bryan • Hollie Hendler Gilleland • Robert Hernandez • Marcie Ince • Mark Johnson
Janell Kleberg • Ricardo Romo • Lionel Sosa
DIRECTORS EMERITI
Fully Clingman • Valerie Guenther • Enrique Guerra, Sr. • Mark E. Watson, Jr.
Established in 1965 and headquartered in South Texas, Wyatt Ranches owns and operates an assimilation of cattle ranching divisions and agricultural interests in ten Texas counties, primarily in South and West Texaswhile also maintaining ranching interests in Colorado, near the communities of Eagle and Vail.
Since our inception in South Texas some 60 years ago, Wyatt Ranches has perpetuated a central focus of producing both specialty and commercial cattle - and to do so in a safe manner at all properties and divisions. Another priority of Wyatt Ranches is to readily acknowledge our associates, who “ride for the brand” each day and make it happen.
From the gatekeepers, vaqueros, and foremen, who work at the various ranching divisions...to the associates working in the ancillary departments of Accounting, Aviation, Facilities, Hospitality, Land Improvement, Law, and Transportation...our tenured associates have afforded the Ranches an opportunity for sustained growth and continued success. We make every effort to preserve the tested traditions of cattle ranching, established by our 100-year-old Founder, Oscar S. Wyatt, Jr.
Wyatt Ranches takes great pride in our associates’ accomplishments, and we make every effort to recognize their expertise, their performance, and their skill. We encourage our associates’ participation in community engagement and involve them at every level of the Ranches’ actions in benevolence to others. After all, these steadfast and loyal associates, some of which approaching 40 years of service, are a genuine and tested source of pride for Wyatt Ranches. As a tenured vaquero said after a long day’s round-up, “Nuestro Orgullo es...nuestra gente.” Our pride is our people.
Established in 2017, the Briscoe Bison Society honors a solid commitment to Western art from our most passionate patrons who support the museum through their generous purchase of art. Admittance recognizes these collectors' dedication to the success of the Briscoe's mission in sharing the many diverse narratives in the great tapestry of the West.
Through the Bison Society, members collectively appreciate Western art while developing relationships and strong bonds with artists, curators, and collectors who share their enthusiasm. We are delighted to recognize these art collectors' dedication to the success of the Briscoe's mission.
For more information, contact our Collectors Concierge, Elizabeth Paul, at collectorsconcierge@briscoemuseum.com
2025 BRISCOE BISON SOCIETY LIST
Mr. Dimitri Abrams
Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Aresco
Ms. Barbara Shelby Baetz
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher G. Bardasian
Mr. and Ms. Marcus T. Barrett, III
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Bellinger
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Biegler
Mr. and Mrs. McLean Bowman
Mr. Daniel M. Briggs and Ms. Marcella Martin
Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Carlos J. Cardenas
Mr. and Mrs. William C. Carrington
Mr. Brian Chandler and Ms. Kathryn K. Oliver
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Clark
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Clements
Mr. and Mrs. James W. Collins
Mr. and Mrs. Eric Cummins
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Davis
Dr. Swann van Delden
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Elliott
Mr. Caleb G. Elliott
Mr. David B. Elliott and Ms. Jessica Evans
Mr. Donald G. and Dr. Denise L. Elliott
Mr. and Mrs. Jason Elliott
Mrs. Jannifer M. Elliott
Mr. Matt Stabler and Mrs. Alexis Elliott-Stabler
Mr. John Faust
Mr. and Mrs. Jeff D. Felberg
Mr. Mackenzie Foster and Mrs. Corrie Mauldin-Foster
Mr. and Mrs. David Found
Mr. and Mrs. Tim Fretthold
Mr. and Mrs. Leo de Geest
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Green
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Guenther
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Guenther, Jr.
Dr. Dan Guerra
Mr. and Mrs. Che Guerra
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Harris
Ms. Pamela B. Havens
Doug and Charlotte E. Heideman
Mr. Bryan Helm
Mr. and Mrs. Barry Hendler
Mr. and Mrs. BJ Hendler
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hendler
Dr. Samuel Hunt, in Memoriam
Mr. Fred Huston
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Johnson
Ms. Laura Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Mark M. Johnson, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Kampmann, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. William Klesse
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Knowlton
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Krane
Dr. Roberta L. Krueger, M.D.
Mr. and Ms. Jason Kyser
Mr. Bradley S. Lacy
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Lagemann
Dr. Mark Lee and Mrs. Gigi Villarreal
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Leinen
Mr. Howard A. Lenox
Mr. and Mrs. Byron J. Lewis
Mr. Humberto S. Lopez
Mr. and Ms. Lance H. Lubel
Mr. and Mrs. Curt Lundberg
Luther King Capital Management
Ms. Ann Marmion
Dr. Kenneth J. and Dr. Amy Maverick
Mr. and Mrs. Fred McComas
Mr. James McMahon, in Memoriam
Mr. and Mrs. Jeff McManus
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman Middleton
Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Miller
Hon. and Mrs. John T. Montford
Dr. and Mrs. David C. Mullins
Mr. John L. Nau, III
Ms. Susan Naylor
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Nixon
Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Norwood
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nunley
Dr. and Mrs. William T. Oliver
Mr. Robert L. Oliver
Mr. Brian Chandler and Ms. Kathryn K. Oliver
Mr. and Mrs. Clinton L. Orms
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Pederson
Mr. and Mrs. Scott O. Petty, Jr
Ms. Anne Phillips
Ms. Lynn B. Richter
Ms. Susan J. Roeder
Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Rosenstein
Mr. and Mrs. William Russell
Mr. and Mrs. McLean Russell
Mr. and Mrs. John Russell
Mr. and Mrs. Nolan Ryan
Mrs. Cindy Schneider
Mr. Chris Shields and Ms. Danita Jarreau
Mr. and Mrs. Sam Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Blake Stapper
Mr. and Mrs. Louis H. Stumberg, Jr.
Mr. Van Taylor
Dr. and Mrs. Gregory Thompson
Ms. Carrie P. Tiemann
Mr. Reese Travis
Ms. Maggie Turner
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Uihlein
Mr. and Mrs. Ryan T. Van Poperin
Mr. and Mrs. Ramkumar Wallooppillai
Mr. and Mrs. Clark Ward
Ms. Shelly Watson
Mr. and Mrs. Billy Wells
Mr. and Mrs. Reed Williams
Mr. Bradford Wyatt
SPONSORED BY SOUTHWEST
SPONSORED BY ART OF THE
24 x 20 in. each, 69 x 97 in. folding screen
ED NATIYA (b. 1972)
Stories of Our People Bronze 54 x 48 x 36 in.
JIM VOGEL (b. 1964)
High Stakes – Pancho Villa loses his favorite rifle to Elfego Baca, then wants it back. Oil on canvas panels framed in antique saloon doors
2 panels: 24 x 15 in., 2 panels: 5 1⁄4 x 15 in.
William Alther
Brandon Bailey
Greg Beecham*
Thomas Blackshear II*
Teal Blake
Eric Bowman
Mary Ross Buchholz
Nancy Bush
Shawn Cameron
Caroline Korbell Carrington
William Carrington
G. Russell Case
Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey
Sean Michael Chavez*
Bruce Cheever
Scott Christensen*
John Coleman
Nicholas Coleman
Todd Connor
Brent Cotton
Eddie Dixon*
Mikel Donahue
C. Michael Dudash
Josh Elliott*
Teresa Elliott
Martin Grelle*
Brian Grimm
Enrique Guerra
Abigail Gutting
William Haskell
Matthew Hillier
Quang Ho*
Donna Howell-Sickles
Chris Hunt
Jerry Jordan*
Mark Kohler
Joe Kronenberg
Bruce Lawes
T. Allen Lawson*
Z. S. Liang
Jeremy Lipking
Huihan Liu
Kyle Ma*
Jan Mapes
Bonnie Marris
Walter Matia
Curt Mattson
Sally Maxwell*
Kenny McKenna
Krystii Melaine
Dean Mitchell*
James Morgan
Brenda Murphy
Ed Natiya
Bill Nebeker
Don Oelze
Dustin Payne*
Vic Payne*
Chad Poppleton
Howard Post
Scott Tallman Powers
Tony Pro
Grant Redden*
Kevin Red Star
Paul Rhymer
Gary Lynn Roberts
Alfredo Rodriguez
Julia Rogers
Gladys Roldán-de-Moras
Stefan Savides
Billy Schenck
Jason Scull
Kelly Singleton
Matt Smith*
Daniel Sprick*
Ezra Tucker
Kent Ullberg
Michael Ome Untiedt
Randy Van Beek
Dustin Van Wechel
Jim Vogel
Morgan Weistling
Kim Wiggins
Jeremy Winborg
Xiang Zhang
* New for 2025 Night of Artists
FRIDAY, MARCH 28
TICKET HOLDER CHECK-IN
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Briscoe Museum Clingman Gallery | 1 st Floor
Night of Artists sponsors, underwriters and ticket holders may check-in and receive their credentials and buying information.
TICKET HOLDER EXHIBITION PREVIEW
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion | 2 nd and 3 rd Floors
Night of Artists sponsors, underwriters, and ticket holders may preview artwork before the art sale and enjoy the museum galleries.
NIGHT OF ARTISTS GUIDED TOUR
10:00 - 11:00 am & 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion | 2 nd and 3 rd Floors
Join Tim Newton, Curator of Night of Artists & Special Exhibitions, for an exclusive tour and insights into this year’s artwork.
ARTIST DEMONSTRATIONS
12:30 - 2:30 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion | 2 nd and 3 rd Floors
Watch creativity in action and explore how artists create their works.
SATURDAY, MARCH 28
NIGHT OF ARTISTS AWARDS BREAKFAST
8:30 - 10:30 am
Jack Guenther Pavilion | 1 st Floor
Join in celebrating this year’s top artists and award winners over a private, ticketed breakfast.
TICKET HOLDER CHECK-IN
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Briscoe Museum Clingman Gallery | 1 st Floor
Night of Artists sponsors, underwriters and ticket holders may check-in and receive their credentials and buying information.
TICKET HOLDER EXHIBITION PREVIEW
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion | 2 nd and 3 rd Floors
Night of Artists sponsors, underwriters, and ticket holders may preview artwork before the art sale and enjoy the museum galleries.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW, SMALL WORKS LUCK OF THE DRAW SALE, DINNER & LIVE AUCTION
5:00 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion
Start on the 3rd Floor, enjoy cocktails in the galleries and make your art selections in this year’s new "Small Works Luck of the Draw" Sale, where you can take home your purchase at the end of the evening. Across the 3rd and 2nd Floors, begin making your selections in anticipation of Saturday’s "Luck of the Draw" Sale. After cocktails, enjoy a seated dinner followed by the exciting Live Auction filling the McNutt Sculpture Garden and the 1st Floor.
6:30 – Small Works “Luck of the Draw” balloting stops and bidders are drawn and posted.
6:45 – The Second Bidder whose name is drawn may begin confirming their purchase.
7:00 – All unsold Small Works artwork is available for purchase on a first-come, first-serve basis.
7:30 – Dinner begins, followed by the Live Auction.
8:15 – All unsold artwork is available for purchase on first-come, first-serve basis.
9:30 – Claim your Small Works and take them home.
11:00 – Valet closes for the evening.
NIGHT OF ARTISTS GRAND EXHIBITION OPENING, "LUCK OF THE DRAW" SALE & RECEPTION
5:00 pm
Jack Guenther Pavilion
Start on the 3rd Floor, enjoy cocktails in the galleries and celebrate the Grand Opening with the exciting "Luck of the Draw" Sale. Drop your ballot for a chance to purchase a fantastic piece of art capturing the spirit of the West, then enjoy authentic Texas cuisine, live music, and dancing the McNutt Sculpture Garden.
7:00 – Balloting stops for the “Luck of the Draw” Sale and bidders are drawn and posted.
7:25 – The Second Bidder whose name is drawn may begin confirming their purchase.
7:45 – All unsold artwork is available for purchase on a first-come, first-serve basis.
8:00 – Join us for an unforgettable reception and dancing.
11:00 – Valet closes for the evening.
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
11:00 am
Jack Guenther Pavilion | Briscoe Western Art Museum 210 W. Market Street, San Antonio, TX 78205
Moderator Tim Newton
Curator of Night of Artists and Special Exhibitions, Briscoe Western Art Museum
Panelists
Seth Hopkins
Executive Director, Booth Western Art Museum
Virginia Mullins Collector
Bill Rey Clagget/Rey Gallery
Scott Leinen Collector
Explore the evolving dynamics of the Western art market, with valuable insights for both seasoned and emerging collectors. This session features perspectives from a diverse array of industry professionals, ensuring an engaging and informative experience for all art collectors.
Scott Leinen, an avid collector based in Omaha, Nebraska, is deeply involved in supporting and promoting Western art. His passion for art and his commitment to fostering appreciation for Western culture make him a valued contributor to the art community. Leinen recently served as a judge at the 43rd Annual Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale in Cody, Wyoming, where he brought a patron’s perspective to the panel.
HOPKINS Executive Director, Booth Western Art Museum
Seth Hopkins is the Executive Director of the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, which has been named the number one art museum in America by USA Today for three consecutive years. Since its opening in 2000, Hopkins has overseen the museum’s growth into the largest permanent exhibition space for Western art in the U.S. Hopkins has curated nearly 100 exhibitions and published extensively in leading art journals, earning recognition as a prominent figure in the art world.
Bill Rey, owner of Claggett/Rey Gallery in Vail, Colorado, has dedicated his career to showcasing fine art, particularly focusing on the American West. Influenced by his father, Western artist Jim Rey, and early experiences with visiting artists, Rey developed a deep appreciation for art. In 1989, he co-founded Claggett/Rey Gallery, which has become renowned for its exceptional collection of Western art and commitment to both contemporary and historical artists. Rey’s approach emphasizes building strong relationships with clients and artists, helping collectors make informed decisions.
Longtime donor and member of the Briscoe Western Art Museum, Virginia ‘Jinny’ Mullins, is a seasoned art collector and philanthropist. She and her husband, David Mullins, have been instrumental in supporting the arts in the San Antonio area. Her passion for art and her commitment to fostering appreciation for Western culture make her a valued contributor to the art community. Mullins’ dedication to the art community is evident through her active participation in various art events and exhibitions.
Slated for Friday night, March 28, the live auction is an exciting time for bidders and attendees alike! Selected artworks from the Night of Artists Exhibition and Sale will be available for live and absentee bidding.
To view works that will be presented in the Live Auction, visit Briscoemuseum.org/noa
If you are new to Night of Artists, don’t let the “Luck of the Draw” Sale intimidate you! The artwork in the exhibition is available for purchase at a xed price established by the artist. Prices are posted with the artwork and published online. As an attendee, you will receive a Ballot Book that enables you to place an Intent to Purchase Slip in the box by a work of art you wish to purchase. Attendees may begin dropping their ballots on Friday, March 28.
On Saturday evening, March 29, through a process designed and monitored for fairness, up to two potential buyers’ names are drawn, allowing them the opportunity to purchase in the formal sale.
Exclusive for Friday night attendees! Discover the charm and intricate details of smaller works that make a big impact. Play “Luck of the Draw” for a chance to take your purchased artwork home that evening!
To view works that will be presented in the Small Works Sale, visit Briscoemuseum.org/noa
Our priority is providing you with an exceptional viewing, bidding, and buying experience during Night of Artists . Our dedicated Collectors Concierge is ready to help you every step of the way.
Ensuring your experience at Night of Artists exceeds expectations, the Collectors Concierge can provide personalized service for your artwork purchase. Whether you need help with absentee bidding, purchasing, payment, shipping, and/or delivery, we look forward to making your experience at Night of Artists a pleasure.
Collectors Concierge | Elizabeth Paul | 210.507.4863 collectorsconcierge@briscoemuseum.org
Absentee ballots for all events may be submitted by calling 210.507.4863 no later than noon on Thursday, March 27.
For additional information and to download the proxy bidding form, visit briscoemuseum.org/noa.
All guests receive complimentary valet parking on both Friday and Saturday night.
Valet opening time: 5:00 pm
For special room rates and accommodations, please visit briscoemuseum.org/noa.
MARY ROSS BUCHHOLZ (b. 1969)
Finding a Nice Shady Spot
Charcoal and graphite on ACM panel
36 x 26 in.
"First Encounter" Matagorda Bay February 20, 1686, The La Salle Expedition Approaches the Karankawa Tribe Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in.
William Alther grew up in West Texas, where at an early age he developed an endless fascination with the landscape and its creatures. A degree in wildlife biology from Texas A&M University eventually led to a position in the zoology department at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which Alther held for thirteen years. Throughout, he was an active artist, and he began painting full-time in 2004.
Alther’s work has been featured in Art of the West, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, and Cowboys and Indians Magazine. His paintings are in the collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Woodson Art Museum, the Brinton Museum, and the Woolaroc Museum.
He has received awards including the Red Smith Artist’s Choice Award at the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Show, the Trustee Purchase Award at the 2021 Western Visions Show, the Founders Award of Merit at the Northwest Rendezvous Group’s Bighorn Rendezvous, and the President’s Award of Excellence at the Oil Painters of America’s National Exhibition.
Current galleries include Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; Oh Be Joyful Gallery, Crested Butte, Colorado; Pitzer’s Fine Art, Wimberley, Texas; and Turner Fine Art, Jackson, Wyoming.
Alther lives in Denver with his wife, Debbie.
Brandon Bailey was born in 1984 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Wildlife and Western art have always come naturally to him. For Bailey, seeing how animals act in their natural environment is key to creating an interesting scene that is true to the subject. Given his Wyoming upbringing, it is only fitting that Bailey has an interest in Western culture.
His fascination with rodeo and the Old West began during his childhood and has continued throughout his life. He rode bulls competitively and rode for the Laramie County Community College rodeo team. Bailey jokes, “I figured if I can ride a two-thousand-pound wild farm animal, there is nothing I can’t at least try to overcome.” Bailey was inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America in November of 2021.
After a 46-year career of painting wildlife art, Greg Beecham is no less passionate to learn and grow as an artist than he was that first full-time day in the late summer of 1978. He struggled for many years to define his vision and improve his technical skills. Forced to slow down and ponder life and work as he lay in a hospital bed for three days in 2013, he asked himself a simple question, "Who am I?" In other words, "What am I trying to say as an artist and how do I go about saying it?"
Beecham’s conclusion was that he must take the tools of his trade; color, value, texture, edges, drawing and composition and, in his work, strive toward unity in the context of simplicity and beauty. Beecham is also fascinated with creating the illusion of mass, weight and volume on a two-dimensional surface.
Beecham considers his life work as an artist to be a journey. There have been a few paintings that have come close to matching his vision. But he continues to press on, hoping to match vision with reality. He believes his talent, opportunity, and passion to paint are gifts from God, and that it is his responsibility to pursue excellence in art and be a blessing to those who view his work.
Greg has been married to Lu Beecham for 47 years. They have a son and a daughter, both grown, whom they are very proud of.
After graduating in 1977 from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Thomas Blacksher worked for a year for the Hallmark Card Company in Kansas City, Missouri. By 1980, he was working as head illustrator for Godbold/ Richter Studio. He became a freelance illustrator in 1982 and has been self-employed ever since.
Known for his dramatic lighting and sensitivity to mood, Blackshear has produced illustrations for advertising, books, calendars, collectors’ plates, greeting cards, magazines, postage stamps, and national posters. His clients range from Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm, and Universal Studios to International Wildlife and National Geographic.
In 1995 he created Ebony Visions , which has been the number-one-selling black figurine collectible in the United States for the past twenty years. He won the National Association of Limited Edition Dealers’ Artist of the Year in 1999, and International Collectible Artist of the Year Award in 2001 for that line. In 2006, Blackshear had a one-man show through the Vatican where he unveiled his painting, Pope John Paul II .
His recent “Western Nouveau” paintings have been featured on the covers of Art of the West and Western Art Collector , and his Western art continues to win awards and find new audiences. In 2020, Blackshear was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. A retrospective book of his paintings is soon to be published.
Teal Blake grew up on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Montana. Looking at C. M. Russell works in his father’s studio and reading Will James books inspired him to pick up a pencil and start capturing his own visions of cowboys and the American West.
Blake has been painting professionally since 2005. He has always liked to show the traditional West: cowboys who are not always clean-shaven, shirts that are not always creased, and horses’ manes that are not always long.
His love for the traditions of ranching and cowboying is unparalleled. His portrayal of ranch life and the handful of people keeping it alive is authentic—no models, no costumes. Fortunate enough to work and ride alongside his friends and muses, he is able to capture his material and inspiration firsthand.
In 2014, Blake’s labor, talent, and accomplishments earned him an invitation into the renowned Cowboy Artists of America. He has also been honored with several awards, including the Joe Beeler CAA Foundation Award and First Place Watercolor at the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona. His work has been featured in Western Horseman, Western Art & Architecture, Southwest Art, Ranch & Reata, and The Cowboy Way .
Blake and his son currently reside in Fort Worth, Texas.
Eric Bowman was born in Pasadena and grew up in Orange County, California. Essentially a self-taught artist, Bowman has had a knack for drawing as far back as he can remember, always the class artist throughout his school years. Early on, various art-related jobs such as silk screen T-shirt printing and surfboard airbrushing led to a lengthy and successful career as a commercial artist before he eventually transitioned to fine art painting.
As a painter, Bowman has exhibited in national and regional exhibitions in some of the country’s most prestigious galleries and museums, including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the Autry Museum of the American West, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, the Kaiping Art Museum in China, the Academy Art Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the Salmagundi Club in New York City. His paintings are in private and corporate collections throughout the United States as well as in England, China, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the West Indies.
Bowman’s work has also been showcased in Western Art and Architecture, Art of the West, Southwest Art, Practique des Arts, Western Art Collector, International Artist, Fine Art Connoisseur, and Plein Air magazines. He is a signature member of the California Art Club and former signature artist of the American Impressionist Society and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.
When not traveling to art events or visiting his beloved home state of California, Eric resides in northwest Oregon with his wife and daughter.
For more than twenty-five years, art has been Mary Ross Buchholz’s devotion. Buchholz and her husband live and ranch in rural West Texas near the town of Eldorado. Coming from a pioneering ranching family, she offers a glimpse of her daily ranch life and a testament to her family’s ranching traditions through her paintings, sculpture, and the most primitive of mediums, charcoal and graphite.
Buchholz relishes in creating the portrait, whether the subject is an animal or person; she enjoys subtlety rendering the details, the different textures and individual characteristics of her subjects. It has been said that her drawings seem timeless and impart a simplicity without distractions. She strives to captivate the viewer both up-close and from a distance.
“The eyes are my favorite part of an animal. I feel like that’s where you’re able to see the life; as people say, the eye captures the soul of the horse. I want my pieces to not only look real, but feel real. I’m always mindful of the subject’s personality and hope each piece is portrayed with honesty and simplicity. I am blessed that what I enjoy drawing is right here, out my back door.”
Buchholz is an award-winning artist who participates in museum shows across the country and was honored at the Briscoe’s 2023 Night of Artists with the William B. Travis Award for Patrons’ Choice. Buchholz is represented by InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas
Nancy Bush is a native Texan who resides in Fredericksburg, Texas.
“Landscape is my love and is always a challenge, spiritually and emotionally. The variety and vastness of it can sometimes be overwhelming. Simplification is the answer. The last light of the day or daybreak interests me more than any other time of the day. I also love gray cloudy days. Trying to capture the spirit and emotion of what is happening before my eyes is the greatest challenge.”
Her greatest influence has come from nineteenth- and twentieth-century painters George Inness, Isaac Levitan, Bruce Crane, and Russell Chatham, among others.
Bush’s work is in numerous private and corporate collections and has been exhibited at various museums and art clubs, including the Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio; Bryan Museum, Galveston, Texas; National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City; the prestigious Salmagundi Club, New York; and others through the American Impressionist Society and the American Tonalist Society, of which she is a master signature member.
“My subject matter comes from all over the country. I strive for my paintings to have a universal appeal, not just represent a particular region. Nothing can imitate nature, but I hope my paintings will convey a single quiet moment of the landscape in its raw beauty.”
Shawn Cameron’s artwork is inspired by the ranch life that has been her family’s for more than 150 years in Arizona and continues today into the sixth generation. Her subjects are real, and sharing their story is her passion. Familiar with multiple art mediums from childhood, the mentoring of friends such as Bill Owen, CAA, and other admired professionals helped her grow as an artist. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines, and she’s participated in a variety of museum shows, including Prix de West, the Briscoe’s Night of Artists, the C.M. Russell Auction, Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West, and more. Among her many honors are the 2022 Steel Dust Award for Best of Show from the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum during America’s Horse in Art and the Cowgirl Up Museum Purchase in 2020 for her painting Dusty Haze
She and her husband live in Pine, Arizona, on acreage where she enjoys a studio with an adjacent barn and horse pasture.
Caroline Korbell Carrington grew up in a family that cherishes and values the land and wildlife of Texas. She spent many of her formative years in the Texas Hill Country, where she began to create works of art. Over time, art became a passion that has led to her successful career as a landscape painter.
"I am so privileged to be able to not only enjoy the outdoors and beautiful scenery found in the Southwest, but I also get to immerse myself in the images by capturing them on canvas."
Carrington graduated from Texas Christian University in 1992 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting. She spent time in New Mexico working alongside prominent landscape painters, including the late David Barbero. Over the years, she has experimented with many different media, the basis of which is oil on canvas. She continues to paint landscape scenes from the western United States with a focus on Texas.
Caroline Korbell Carrington works alongside her husband, sculptor William Carrington, in their home studio.
William Carrington received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Southwest Texas State University in 1989. He worked for several years as a production artist at Giles Design Studio in San Antonio, where he later did freelance production work for various studios. He attended Trinity University, where he earned a master of arts in teaching degree. He went on to teach elementary education for thirteen years and later elementary art. After much contemplation and long conversations with his wife, the artist Caroline Korbell Carrington, he decided to pursue sculpture full time. He currently is entering the fourteenth year in this endeavour and has realized that sculpting is what he was meant to do.
William Carrington is an avid lifelong outdoorsman. Coming from a ranching family, he spent a great deal of time hunting and fishing. Over the years, he has gained in-depth knowledge of wildlife and wildlife behavior. In his work, he captures the gestural qualities of animals. Carrington also spent years in the outdoors, cleaning and butchering game. He states, "By butchering game, one gains a keen knowledge of the animal's physical characteristics and muscular structure." He puts this knowledge into his work, striving to depict the animal's movement from within.
He currently works out of his studio at home in San Antonio, Texas.
Western painter G. Russell Case is inspired by creation, but he places little value on literal translations. His sweeping, idealized depictions of the Western landscape combine the beauty of the created world with the rich imagination and originality of an artist’s mind. Case’s work is simple, pure, and fresh; his painting draws in the viewer and delivers timeless landscapes. We are immediately transported into a world created by shadow and light, of immense vistas punctuated by jagged mountains and inhabited by lonesome cowboys and Native Americans.
Russell Case’s work is represented in galleries including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the Springville Museum of Art, and the Phippen Museum, among others. Case has also won numerous awards, including Best of Show and First Place Oil Painting at Phippen Western Art Show in Prescott, Arizona, in 2001; the Coors Western Art Best of Show in 2012 and Artist’s Choice in 2014. Among the national shows Case is in are the Prix de West in Oklahoma City; Coors Western Art Exhibition in Denver; and Maynard Dixon Country in Mt. Carmel, Utah.
Case resides in Brigham City, Utah. He is married to Susanne, and they have three children: Taylee, Morgan, and Cooper. He is also a proud grandpa to six grandchildren.
Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey is a colorist with a strong sense of design, whether she is creating a signature Western piece, a colorful floral, or a vibrant wildlife painting. She is an avid plein air oil painter, and though she explores many mediums, she is best known for her paintings on silk.
Cawdrey’s ambitious Forever Glacier: The Legacy Project, for which she created eighteen pieces of all the large mammals of Glacier National Park and four pieces depicting the small mammals, was exhibited at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, and on view at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, from October 2021 through March 2022.
A founding member of the Russell Skull Society of artists, and has regularly participated in the C.M. Russell Museum’s Russell Sale, the Hockaday Museum’s A Timeless Legacy show, and the Phippen Museum Miniature Masterpiece show and has shown across the country, including at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Gilcrease Museum.
Nancy is represented by Cawdrey Gallery in Whitefish, Montana, West Lives On Contemporary Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Big Horn Galleries in Cody, Wyoming, and Tubac, Arizona.
Born and raised amidst the rich cultural tapestry of the American Southwest, Native New Mexican artist S.M. Chavez (Sean Michael Chavez) paints a unique vision bridging tradition and innovation. He melds the old with the new, nodding to historic masters such as the Taos Society of Artists while simultaneously embracing the future of Western art. His soothing sense of color and exceptional design aesthetic firmly places his work within the spectrum of the best in contemporary western art.
Represented by Santa Fe’s Acosta Strong Fine Art on Canyon Road, he continues to sell out solo shows and participates in several museum exhibitions nationally — venues include The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Albuquerque Museum of Art, The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, The Couse-Sharp Historic Site, The Briscoe Western Art Museum and The Coors Western Art Show, where he was recognized as one of three award recipients in 2024. S.M. Chavez will be participating in the 2025 Prix de West at The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
National and regional publications featuring his work include: Western Art Collector (Cover Image August 2024), Southwest Art, Wild West Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fe Magazine, Western Art & Architecture, and Fine Art Connoisseur.
Interested in art as a child, Bruce Cheever embarked on a career as a fine artist after spending many years as an illustrator. It was during those years that he discovered his affinity for tonalism, luminism, and realism. Cheever’s atmospheric and bucolic landscapes are suggestive of the Renaissance era. His passion for the landscape is driven by a neverending search for beauty.
Cheever’s studio paintings take shape from the inspiration he gathers from his travels. Whether painting a rural scene in the American West or a pastoral European landscape, he has developed a painting style that is uniquely his own. Born in 1958, this Utah artist points to his education at Brigham Young University and a professional career as an illustrator as his prime training ground in both observation and discipline. Cheever has had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world to capture the beauty of the landscape in his paintings. His love of the Western American landscape, figurative work, and still life has been a hallmark of his success.
Scott L. Christensen is a world-renowned, award-winning artist and educator, based in Teton Valley, Idaho. He is known for his stunning landscapes in both oil and gouache, as well as the emotion he evokes through his art. Scott has been painting and teaching for over 40 years, and his work is highly regarded by both artists and collectors alike. Painting is not simply a passion for Christensen, it’s a necessity, like breathing. His goal is to compose an aggregate vision of nature’s beauty, while also delighting in the journey. “The process alone,” he says, “is worth the effort.”
Christensen grew up in Lander, Wyoming, a place of extreme geography and wild beauty that has influenced his aesthetic. It was not until college, however, that he would recognize nature as his muse. After a football-related neck injury that left him unable to compete, Christensen sought solace in fly fishing and visiting his grandfather, a wheelchair-bound amateur oil painter. The scent of oils stirred Christensen’s imagination, encouraging him to enroll in art classes. He later earned a degree in art education and now teaches in person and online through his Adventure of Painting programs.
Over the years, Christensen has pursued painting with the discipline he once brought to sports. This atypical combination of athleticism, scholarly curiosity, and an ardent desire to experience nature has become the alchemy of his success.
John Coleman is a passionate history artist who has been captivated by the mythology of the West for as long as he can remember.
Through his paintings, sculptures and drawings, he delves into subjects that serve as metaphors for our shared past and future.
Inspired by the spirit of exploration, freedom, and dreams, Coleman brings the essence of historic Native America to life.
Nicholas Coleman was born in Provo, Utah, in 1978. Nicholas Coleman’s work emphasizes the key elements of a good story: scene, structure, event, and plot. Every brushstroke builds a story that evokes the common narrative of struggle, fortitude, and resiliency. His romantic paintings inspire his audience to join his mission to preserve the fading heritage of the American West. Much of this is a result of his upbringing under his father, famed Western American artist Michael Coleman.
Western American art has long defied categories and stylistic borders and continues its struggle to take its rightful place among mainstream audiences and the celebrated gallery walls long held hostage by curators and critics. For Nicholas Coleman, this culture clash serves as an appealing element that draws in an audience eager to trade modern life and art for wild landscapes. It’s a source of inspiration that leads him to cast Western American art with a wider lens. His work emboldens free-spirited imagination, while his cultural outreach encourages people to experience the West for themselves. This desire to push his audience to explore the raw landscapes in their own lives emanates from Coleman’s core belief that those who cherish Western landscapes will, in turn, come to protect them. Nicholas Coleman is known for his efforts to increase access to America’s wild places, but accessibility to art is a recurring theme as well.
Montana painter Todd Connor began capturing beloved Western landscapes, wildlife, and themes in pastels and oils at an early age. After serving as a Navy SEAL, he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration from the Pasadena Art Center College of Design in 1999. He then moved to Montana to pursue his lifelong passion.
A highly successful show in Bozeman a year later secured Connor’s artistic future, and he has never looked back. Over the past two decades, his art has been featured in numerous exhibitions, shows, auctions, and galleries throughout the country and in magazines and newspapers, including Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, Art of the West, and Big Sky Journa l.
Connor’s work is currently available at the Dick Idol Signature Gallery in Whitefish, Montana, and Settlers West Fine American Art Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, in auctions, and by commission.
Brent Cotton is an award-winning, nationally recognized artist who lives in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana. He prefers to paint in the tonalist/luminist style made popular in the late 1800s, seeking to create works that evoke a mood and have a timeless quality.
An avid outdoorsman, Cotton can often be found standing in one of the local rivers with a fly rod in his hand or at the oars of his drift boat. The close proximity to some amazing blue-ribbon trout streams is one of the many reasons he and his family make their home in the Bitterroot Valley. This passion has led Cotton to focus on sporting art, particularly fly-fishing, in his work.
He is the recipient of the 2018 Wilson Hurley Award for Best Landscape at Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and the 2019 Victor Higgins Award for Best Body of Work at Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis.
His work can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the country.
Cotton is represented by Trailside Gallery, Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Huey’s Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Mockingbird Gallery, Bend, Oregon; and Samarah Fine Art, Whitefish, Montana.
Eddie Dixon grew up in California but moved to Lubbock after returning from two years in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. Upon graduating from Texas Tech with degrees in chemistry and zoology, he continued his education by obtaining a master’s degree in entomology. It was during his graduate studies that he rekindled a love for sculpting. After working in Chicago as a commodities broker, he returned to Lubbock and was commissioned to create his iconic sculpture in 1992: the National Buffalo Soldier Monument.
As a direct result of that monument’s installation, in 1992 President George H. W. Bush declared July 25th "National Buffalo Soldier Day.” As further recognition, a United States postage stamp was later designed and issued in the likeness of the Buffalo Soldier Monument. October 16, 1993, "Eddie Dixon Day" was declared in Washington D.C. and New York City, and on March 28, 1994 in Lubbock, Texas for outstanding accomplishments in art. He was soon inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in 2000.
Today, Eddie's art can be found in national historical sites, the Pentagon, West Point, US Department of Interiors, US State Department; the Smithsonian Air and Space, the Smithsonian National History museums, and in many museums and war memorial and National parks throughout the United States and in more than 50 countries abroad.
A multiple-award-winning member of the Cowboy Artists of America, artist Mikel Donahue is best known for his impeccable depictions of cowboy life. His drawings and paintings portray ranchers and their livestock during the day-to-day ritual of sun-up to sun-down work on the ranch. What may seem mundane chores are captured and translated through his artistic style into moments of meaning and reflection.
Donahue, who was born and raised in Tulsa, was taught about life on the ranch by his paternal grandfather and about Western art by his maternal grandfather, with memorable trips to Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum and what was then the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Fascinated both by life on the ranch and the iconic art by the likes of Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington, Donahue has become a perfect amalgam of his influences; he breeds racing quarter horses with his wife, Christie, on their place outside Broken Arrow and maintains an award-winning career in the arts.
Mikel is a graduate of the University of Tulsa and a thirty-three-year veteran and multipleaward-winning advertising designer. His work is held in Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs; Santa Fe Trails Fine Art; and Settlers West Galleries, Tucson.
C. Michael Dudash was born in 1952 in Mankato, Minnesota and eventually settled in the Green Mountains of Vermont, where he began a career as an artist and oil painter in 1977. Trained in the fine arts, Dudash’s work in classic illustration won him a prestigious and national reputation. In 2002, after illustrating for twenty-five years, he left his illustration work behind and began working full-time in the fine art world.
He started out by selling in several prestigious Western galleries and eventually earned his place in the best Western museum shows and national auctions, including at Prix de West, the C.M. Russell Museum, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Scottsdale Art Auction, and the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction.
Dudash’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including Art of the West, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, American Artist, and Artists Magazine . Hundreds of collectors and corporations hold his paintings in their permanent collections, as do The Booth Museum, the James Western Art Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, and the Briscoe Western Art Museum. In 2016 he became a member of the Cowboy Artists of America.
Dudash lives with his wife, Valerie, near the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
A third-generation artist, Josh Elliott was born in Great Falls, Montana. His grandfather dabbled in a variety of artistic pursuits and his father is an accomplished wildlife and landscape painter. Elliott and his two brothers grew up in a home where art was valued and supported. That support continues today, as his mother actively collects his work.
After some years at university, Elliott left school to learn to paint from his father. He learned the importance of painting from life and discovered his passion for painting outdoors. After a year of study, he married his wife, Allison, and the two moved to Oregon to start their life together. He believes the muted tones of western Oregon sharpened his skills of observation. Over time, outdoor painting became subordinate to more planned and composed studio paintings. In the studio, he has more freedom to experiment and focus on what makes a good painting. He believes that the art we resonate with shows us a potent vision of the artist’s world, and Elliott aims to have the same impact on his viewers.
Elliott’s work resides in several museum collections, including the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia; the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis; the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; and the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
The Elliots, along with their two daughters, live in Helena, Montana.
Teresa Elliott is an award-winning artist living and working in Texas. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Kansas and has received numerous awards from organizations such as the Briscoe Western Art Museum; the Portrait Society of America, Tallahassee, Florida; the Art Renewal Center, Port Reading, New Jersey; and the Coors Western Art Exhibition and Sale at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. She has exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; MEAM European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain; the Salmagundi Club in New York City; and the Beijing World Art Museum in China. Collectors include Nolan Ryan, the Bass family, and the National Western Stock Show.
Elliott’s West Texas studio sits on a bed of ancient lava rock overlooking a vast old ranch. The wandering javelina herds, deer, and turkey are frequent visitors, reminding her of John Muir's observation: "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it connected to the rest of the world."
Born and raised in Clifton, Texas, Martin Grelle lives with his wife Joyce on a ranch a few miles from town. Grelle’s studio sits in the Meridian Creek Valley, surrounded by the hills of Bosque County, just a short distance from his home.
Grelle began painting when he was young. Mentored by James Boren, Grelle had his first one-man show at a local gallery within a year of graduating from high school. In the years since, Grelle has produced over thirty oneman exhibitions and has won awards at shows around the country.
Grelle was invited into membership with the Cowboy Artists of America in 1995, and participated in the first Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He has won the Prix de West Purchase Award, the Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey Buyers’ Choice Award, the CA Buyers’ Choice Award, the Silver Award for Water Solubles, the Silver Award for Oil and the Gold Award for Drawing, as well as the Legacy Award by the Briscoe Museum and the Spirit of the West Award by the San Dimas Festival of Arts. Grelle has participated in The Masters at the Autry Museum, the Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum, the Coeur d’Alene Auction, and the Jackson Hole Art Auction. He has been featured in several publications including Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, and True West's 2011 Best of the West Source Book .
The art of Brian Grimm invites viewers to become immersed in the animal world. His faithful portrayal of wildlife is supported by his years in the field. Strong brushwork, confident style, and attentive editing reflect respect for the animal while also resting on the foundations of design principles.
Grimm earned a commercial art degree at Austin Community College and learned from a litany of professors at the forefront of the Austin arts scene. After college, he worked as a graphic designer in Austin. After his first foray into fine art at outdoor festivals, Grimm found an audience and gallery representation at his first show. National representation and museum invitations soon followed. His work has traversed the spectrum of Western, plein air, and impressionist art, continuing to grow while focusing solely on wildlife art for twenty-five years.
In 2020 Grimm was selected as a Centennial Artist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Centennial Celebration, and he has also been recognized in the Arts in the Parks Top 100, the Southwest Art Magazine Top 100 in Artistic Excellence, and with the Jim Ward Memorial Award by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.
His paintings have been featured in publications such as Art of the West, Southwest Art, Western Art and Architecture, and Western Art Collector.
Enrique Guerra studied at Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut. After graduation, he apprenticed with artists Robert Lougheed and Tom Lovell in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Guerra creates art in both oil paintings and bronzes, drawing inspiration from the vast deserts and brushlands of Northern Mexico and South Texas. He enjoys painting street scenes in semi-abandoned towns or capturing images of farmers with their livestock as they till their land. Because he has spent the greater part of his life in these very surroundings, this is the subject matter that continues to captivate and shape the images of his work.
In 2016, Guerra installed a life-sized sculpture titled El Caporal in the sculpture garden of the Briscoe Western Art Museum. The commissioned work features an early Spanish settler as he drives two longhorn cows yoked together with a rope. Guerra’s research revealed the specific way in which ropes with wooden bobbins were used as a yoking mechanism to secure wild cattle as they were driven between destinations. The cattle were further deterred from escape by braiding their tails together, as depicted in this early Texas ranch scene.
In 2019, Guerra completed a sculpture of Juan Seguin that is now installed at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Guerra lives on his family’s cattle ranch near McAllen, Texas. His work is featured annually at the Night of the Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.
Gutting paints to portray the culture and wildlife of the American West. Her training began early as her artist mother, Susan, allowed the young Gutting to work alongside her in the studio. Gutting has also studied via workshop instruction throughout the western United States, including several courses at the Scottsdale Artist School in Arizona. Her work has been featured in Western Art Collector Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, Western Art and Architecture, Art of the West, and Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine . Gutting was honored to be a guest artist at the 2024 Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City, where her painting Runnin' on Empty was given the Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award. In 2025, she will be returning to the Prix de West as a 2nd year guest artist. She also participates annually in the March in Montana Auction in Great Falls, Montana and Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio.
While Gutting's love of art is inherited from and cultivated by her mom, her love of animals and the American West was fostered by her time spent working with her veterinarian father through her teens and into her early twenties. The memories from those experiences are rich and contribute to Gutting's vision for her art. She looks forward to a lifetime of growth and opportunity as an artist.
Gutting currently lives in the beautiful mountains of Northern Idaho.
Nestled in the high desert terrain of Santa Fe, William Haskell creates visually distinctive work that reflects his passion for the landscapes of the West. Whether capturing weathered adobe structures, mesas, or emotionally charged tornadoes, his notable style is widely recognized throughout the Southwest.
Haskell’s goal as an artist has been unchanging: to intimately draw in the viewer, connecting them emotionally and energetically to the natural abstraction of his subject. His paintings are featured in esteemed galleries as well as corporate and private collections.
Haskell’s work has been featured at many prominent Western art museums, including the Briscoe Western Art Museum, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and the Albuquerque Art Museum. He has also been a featured artist in Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Southwest Art, and Western Art and Architecture magazines.
Haskell is represented by Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson; Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs; and Coeur d’Alene Galleries, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Matthew Hillier was born and brought up on the south coast of England. After attending art college in Wales, where he studied wildlife illustration, he spent many years illustrating books and magazines before becoming an artist.
He moved to the United States in 2000 and settled on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he lives with his wife, the artist Julia Noffsinger Rogers, and their family. He is a multi-award winning artist in both America and Great Britain who is best known for his marine and wildlife paintings. He also loves to teach and regularly leads workshops around the country. He has been a featured artist at the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland. He is a member of the American Society of Marine Artists and the Society of Animal Artists.
Hillier travels widely in search of subjects to paint. He has spent time in Southeast Asia as well as Africa. He paints in oils.
Quang Ho is more interested in representing the mundane details of his immediate environment than in searching the world for preconceived artistic content. His diverse subject matter ranges from still lifes, landscapes, and interiors, to dancers and figures. “Realism and abstract—it’s all the same to me,” Ho has said. “The real essence of painting is the dialogue between shapes, tones, colors, textures, edges, and line. Everything else follows—including light, form, concepts, personal beliefs, and inspirations.” Working primarily in oils, watercolors, and pastels, Ho is not tethered to any mode of expression; a single painting may be a color study, another a formal arrangement, and yet another an exploration of texture and surface.
Ho is a much sought-after teacher and lecturer on art and has won numerous prestigious awards nationally from the Artists of America to the Oil Painters of America exhibits. He has held a retrospective exhibit at the Steamboat Springs Museum of Art and has held shows at the Woolaroc Museum as well as the Booth Museum of Western Art. Ho enjoys reading philosophy and science, playing guitar and golf, and he finds time to hunt for fossils and forage for mushrooms.
Growing up on a Texas ranch near the Red River, Donna Howell-Sickles developed her affinity for nature, animals, and the West at an early age. After graduating from Texas Tech University with a BFA in painting and drawing, she found her muse in a vintage postcard depicting a cowgirl that read, “Greetings from a Real Cowgirl from the Ole Southwest.” For the last forty years, her work has explored the images, spirit, and myth of the American West. Her nationally recognized and distinctive artwork, filled with bright colors and spirited cowgirls, is a part of many museum collections, including the Booth Museum of Western Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
Along with winning numerous awards in invitational museum shows, HowellSickles’s artwork has been featured in many publications about Western art. Her artwork has been the focus for solo exhibitions at the Steamboat Art Museum, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, the Booth Museum of Western Art, and many others. In November 2007, Donna Howell-Sickles was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, and in 2011 Southwest Art magazine listed her as one of the forty most prominent people in the Western art world.
Howell-Sickles is represented by Ann Korologos Gallery, Aspen, Colorado; Davis and Blevins Gallery, Saint Jo, Texas; McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe; and Artspace 111, Fort Worth.
Chris Hunt is a nationally recognized artist who specializes in bronze sculpture, charcoal, and pastel drawings. His realistic portrayals of past and present figures bring their unique stories to life with remarkable detail and drama. He has a breathtaking flair for capturing and evoking emotion in every work, with subjects ranging from the striking Native American and the historic vaquero to the hardworking cowboy.
Hunt’s work has been sought after by individual collectors, corporate installations, TV personalities, and even heads of state. He is represented by Legacy and Manitou Galleries and has won several Best of Show awards, People’s Choice awards, and Best Sculpture awards in shows and museums. He also has been featured in publications such as Western Art Collector, Art of the West, and Cowboys and Indians.
Jerry Jordan is a modern impressionist painter who is continually inspired by the work of the Taos Society of artists including Victor Higgins and Ernest Blumenschein. Much like the Taos founders before him, Jordan was haunted by the artistic appeal of Northern New Mexico’s stunning landscapes, unique architecture and ancestral Pueblo culture. Taos became his permanent home, and it is his constant muse.
When people first experience a Jordan painting, they are immediately transported to another time. They often wonder aloud if the work is historic or contemporary, because his paintings seem timeless. Jordan is fundamentally a colorist, and therefore the strongest overall reaction from the viewer is in response to his well-thought-out palette. palette. With each visible stroke of color, the viewer is summoned to join the painter on a journey of profound appreciation.
There is a spirituality to Jordan’s work that is captured in his renderings of Pueblo life, and of the landscape that serves as a backdrop for modern and historic life in Taos. Each painting is signed with the acronym T.A.O.S.- Together Always Our Spirit.
Mark Kohler is an award-winning watercolorist. His work is held in private and corporate collections across the United States, and his collectors can be found throughout the world. He has been featured in Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Western Horseman, Art and Architecture, and various other publications. He has self-published two coffee table books, titled Mark Kohler: Working Cowboys and Mark Kohler: Going West. He illustrated a cowboy cookbook, titled Cow Country Cooking , written by Kathy McCraine, which was awarded the Will Rogers 2011 Medallion Award for Best Cookbook.
Kohler has been invited to such prestigious juried art exhibits as the Briscoe Museum Western Art Show and Sale; the Charlie Russell Museum Art Show; Small Works, Great Wonders at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum; and the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. Throughout his career, he has been honored to show wherever the American West is respected and valued.
Kohler is gaining a reputation for creating timeless family memories through his classic portraits, and his atelier-style workshops are also well sought after. He has also added custom handcrafted knives to his creative offerings. After twenty-seven years as a professional artist, he continues to grow in his passion for creating art that touches the human soul and spirit.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Joe Kronenberg was exposed to a historic past that included accounts of Native Americans, pioneers, mountain men, and trappers. These stories shaped his love of the subject matter he now paints. Traveling to historic sites, national parks, and the mountains each year, he studies and gathers reference photos and information on the animals and scenery that he then portrays in his work.
Kronenberg was the 2009 recipient of the C. M. Russell Museum Auction’s Ralph “Tuffy” Berg Award, which is given to the most promising up-and-coming artist. In 2017, he was inducted into the Russell Skull Society of Artists. In 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016, seven of his paintings were awarded finalists in the prestigious Art Renewal Center’s International Salon. He also received Best of Show at the 2015 Western Masters auction in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Kronenberg was a featured artist in the book Best of American Oil Painters 2011 and has been featured in magazines such as Fine Art Connoisseur, Western Art Collector, Art of the West, Southwest Art, American Art Collector, Northwest Sportsman, and California Sportsman.
His work can be found in numerous private, corporate, and public collections throughout North America and is represented by Coeur d’Alene Galleries; Going to the Sun Gallery, Whitefish, Montana; and Beartooth Gallery Fine Art, Red Lodge, Montana.
Bruce K. Lawes is an internationally collected artist with a passion for animal art and conservation. He is a signature member of the Artists for Conservation (AFC), the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), and the Oil Painters of America (OPA). He was born in 1962 in Toronto, Canada.
Lawes studied part-time at the Ontario College of Art and Design, but he attributes most of his success to his first-hand encounters with the modern masters of the day. Lawes has shown his work in museums like the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in, Indianapolis; the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the Hiram Blauvelt Museum in Oradell, New Jersey; National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa; Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson; George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, in Joplin, Missouri; and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.
Lawes has sold his work at the prestigious Coeur d’Alene Art Auction and the Jackson Hole Art Auction.
“All of my inspiration comes directly from life.”
-- T. Allen Lawson
T. Allen Lawson is drawn to the quieter side of life. Over time he has developed a discipline of patiently observing and studying the often-unnoticed rhythms and subtleties of his surroundings. In his paintings he strives to build layers and textures with pigment to create the abstraction and nuanced depth he feels in nature and the world around him.
Having studied drawing and portraiture at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he furthered his formal education at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Connecticut. A lifelong student, his dedication to and love of his profession is always evolving as his interests and influences continue to challenge him.
Lawson has won numerous awards including: Founder’s Prize, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts; Golden Thunderbird Award, Maynard Dixon Country; Red Smith Memorial Award (twice), National Museum of Wildlife Art. At the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, he has won the Spirit of the West Award, the William Weiss Purchase Award, and the Juror’s Choice Award. At the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, he has won the Prix de West Purchase Award, the Robert Lougheed Memorial Artists’ Choice Award (thrice), the Directors’ Choice for Outstanding Landscape and the Donald Teague Memorial Award and the Wilson Hurley Memorial Award.
Lawson lives and works in Rockport, Maine.
Z. S. Liang studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and later furthered his art studies in the United States. He earned his B.F.A. at Massachusetts College of Arts and his M.F.A. at Boston University.
Liang experienced his first great inspiration in this country when he studied and painted the Wampanoag Indian culture at the Outdoor Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He began to focus primarily on painting Native Americans and their traditional ways of life. Liang’s passion for the Indians, coupled with his emphasis on historical accuracy, adds strength and truth to his portrayals.
Among the many awards Liang has received are the 2011 Masters of the American West Purchase Award at the Autry Museum’s Masters of the American West; the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence from the Oil Painters of America; and the Best of Show Award from the American Society of Portrait Artists in 1998.
Liang’s works are in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery—Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; Briscoe Western Art Museum; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the West Point Museum of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. His work is represented by Trailside Galleries, Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Few artists can claim the success and artistic repertoire Jeremy Lipking has attained. A realist figurative painter who claims John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, and the Taos Society of Artists as major influences, Lipking creates art that is distinguished by a contemporary aesthetic and modern subject matter.
The son of painter and illustrator Ronald Lipking, Lipking became interested in art as a young child. He enrolled in the California Art Institute, where his burgeoning talent became evident as he devoted himself to serious study. He quickly found his own way and the unique ethereal style that has made him famous. Many of his well-known paintings feature his daily and close friends.
In 2014, Lipking won the Prix de West Purchase Award at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Prix de West Invitational Art Show and Sale as well as Best in Show and Purchase Awards at the Art Renewal Center’s International ARC Salon. In 2013, American Artist magazine named him one of the seventy-five greatest artists of all time.
Lipking is most drawn to the desert and mountain wilderness of the American Southwest, spending much of each summer gathering inspiration by sketching and painting on location, where he often combines the human figure and landscape of the Southwest into a single work. Lipking is an enrolled member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the historic Lake Superior Band of Chippewa Indians.
When Huihan Liu was a little kid, his father taught him to write Chinese calligraphy with a brush and ink on rice paper, thus encouraging his interest in art. Liu was trained in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art in China, then received bachelor’s (1972) and master’s (1989) degrees from the Academy of Art College of San Francisco. Today, with more than forty years of experience as an illustrator and teacher, he is a master signature member of the Oil Painters of America, a master signature member of American Impressionist Society, and a signature member of the California Art Club.
Liu has received numerous awards, such as Best of Show Award in the Oil Painters of America Regional Exhibition in 1996; Gold Medal for Best Painting in California Art Club’s 92nd Annual Juried Exhibition in 2003; Best of Show in Painting—John Scott People’s Choice Award in Western Rendezvous of Art in 2003; Gold Medal for the Master Signature Division at the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Show; and first-place winner in the Bowers Museum Contemporary Plein Air Permanent Collection in 2003.
He received the Prix de West Frederic Remington Painting Award in 2022 and the Robert Lougheed Award at Prix de West in 2023.
Liu has been featured in such publications as Art of the West, The Artist, Southwest, and International Artists.
Kyle Ma was born in 2000 in Taipei, Taiway. He developed an early love for art after being exposed to the works of the old masters through museums and art history books. In 2010, Ma moved with his family to Austin, Texas. Here, Ma began to study oil painting seriously under Elizabeth Locke. Under her instruction, Ma learned the importance of a solid foundation in the fundamentals to be a successful representational artist.
After studying with Locke for two years, Ma continued his painting education by taking workshops with artists such as Quang Ho, Scott Christensen, and Qiang Huang. He balanced all of this while still attending high school classes.
In 2018, Ma enrolled in the University of Texas, Austin and studied geosciences, which taught him a lot about the science of how the landscapes he paints originally formed. In 2021, as Ma was entering his final year of university, he received the gold medal in the Oil Painters of America National Exhibition. As Ma began to paint full-time, he also found a passion for sharing his knowledge and experience to others and has taught many workshops throughout the United States and Europe.
Ma is a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America, Plein Air Painters of America, and a member of the Salmagundi Club. He has been featured in Southwest Art, Art of the West, Fine Art Connoisseur, Western Art Collector, and American Art Collector magazines.
The roots of Jan Mapes’ professional art career extend deep into her childhood, when her family’s love for the outdoors nurtured curiosity and creativity. Her mother taught her to savor the world and love its creatures. Together, they got dirt under their fingernails, climbed trees, caught fireflies in a jar, and fully enjoyed all the wonder of the changing seasons. Her grandfather introduced her to the life of a southern cowman, filling her mind and heart until a craving for horses, cattle, and cowboys became as strong as one for sweets.
When Mapes moved to Colorado, she discovered that horses were everywhere. The West took up residence inside her. Its shapes, colors, and movements lured her and fed her growing curiosity.
Although art and science often occupy two opposite ends of a spectrum, this powerful combination continues to fuel Mapes' passion for nature and the wonder of the fabric of creation.
As she sought to render the wonder around her through art, Mapes realized that an object does not stand alone, but is defined by its context. Each element is dependent on the rest. Her goal is to weave these components together in each painting and sculpture, resulting in a pleasant visual experience much like a great meal or a beautiful symphony.
While a student at Michigan State University, Bonnie Marris illustrated several books, including a mammalogy text by a leading expert in the field. The book attracted the attention of noted zoologist George Schaller, who invited Marris to prepare the art for posters to support his worldwide rareanimal relief programs. Each year, Marris makes several field trips to study her animal subjects, and this close proximity gives her the confidence to paint them in their natural surroundings.
Marris’ work can be found in many major collections throughout the country. She has won numerous awards, including the Patrons’ Choice Award in 2010 and the People’s Choice Award in 2011 at the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction; and the 2012 Patrons’ Choice Award for Social Viewpoints, the Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award, the Ross and Billie McKnight Artists’ Choice Award, the Marjorie and Frank Sands Patrons’ Choice Award in 2014 for Ice Princess, and the Patrons’ Choice Award for her painting Trouble in 2016 at the Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
She and her husband, Woody, live on a farm in Ada, Michigan, with two dogs and three horses. Marris is represented by Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, Colorado and Trailside Galleries, Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Walter Matia was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned degrees in biology and art design. Upon graduation he worked in the exhibits department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and The Nature Conservancy. He started his art studio, Curlew Castings, in 1984. Matia possesses a vision of the world around him. His work is biographical; the subject matter is so much a part of his life that it is like a diary, personal art that comes straight from the heart.
Matia’s sculptures are exhibited at the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum; Brookgreen Gardens; National Museum of Wildlife Art; Gilcrease Museum; Wichita Botanical Gardens; Cleveland Zoo and Cleveland Museum of Natural History; American Kennel Club Museum; the NFL Texans’ NRG Stadium, Houston, and Blair House, the guest house of the US President.
His works have been exhibited in shows across the country. He is a Master Signature member of the Society of Animal Artists, Fellow of the National Sculpture Society and Master Wildlife Artist at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. Matia resides in Dickerson, MD with his wife, daughter, son, Pip the Setter, and Tink the Lab.
Joy, excitement, and intensity mark Curt Mattson’s passion for life and sculpture. It is his love of the horse and horsemanship that drives him. Movement, texture, mass, and negative space bring each piece to life.
Mattson’s works of art have garnered many awards, including Night of Artists’ James Bowie Award; the National Sculpture Society’s Elliott Gantz Award; Quest for the West’s Cyrus Dalin Award from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art; Best in Show from the Phippen Museum’s Western Art Show & Sale; and Allied Artists of America’s Silver Medal for sculpture.
He researches thoroughly before starting a new work. He begins creating only when he is completely familiar with the subject. Whether contemporary or historical, he intimately understands the nuances of his subjects. Beyond that, his artistic training assures that his work is more than mere depictions. The compositional elements come together to create artistic excellence rarely found in sculpture.
Mattson establishes low edition sizes for each of his sculptures. On average, no more than twenty pieces are available of each of his works, which makes it a rare privilege to own a Curt Mattson sculpture. In his work, viewers can be sure they are looking at the true West.
While working in scratchboard for 55 years, Sally Maxwell has distinguished herself as one of the pioneers in the medium. She works in large sizes as well as experimenting with many removal techniques making her work stand out from the many others in the field.
Her kits and instructional booklets have produced a generation of “scratchers” all over the world. Maxwell is a Master Member of the International Society of scratchboard Artists as well as a Signature member of the Society of Animal Artists and a Master member of American Woman Artists, all dignified and elite groups of professionals. Maxwell has been the recipient of multiple awards from each of these groups over many years. Maxwell’s works are shown in several galleries and at juried museum shows as well as in her studio.
In her “previous life” as the artist Sally Miller, she was published in open edition prints and published limited editions of her scratchboard works as Renaissance Gallery Prints and now has Giclee editions. Modern Masters and Artifacts were producers of Maxwell’s many collectable plate and figurine series for over 15 years, which are traded on Ebay today. Maxwell’s studio is in LaGrange, Texas and is open by appointment only.
Kenny McKenna’s subjects are widely diverse, with an emphasis on landscapes. Painting exclusively in oils, he uses an impressionistic style that elicits warmth and calmness, an open invitation to explore, and an inherent infusion of sunlight.
Because his relatives resided on both the West and East Coasts, the McKenna’s family road trips covered an expansive territory. The desert landscapes, canyons, and colors of the Southwest were especially appealing to him during the travels to California. He continued to crisscross the United States as an accomplished musician. He has been inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame, and the Iowa Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame.
McKenna has exhibited in Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California; Small Works, Great Wonders at the National Cowboy &and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.
McKenna’s work has been featured in Art of the West, Southwest Art, and Western Art Collector. His work is represented by Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Settlers West, Tucson, Arizona; and Astoria Fine Art, Jackson, Wyoming. McKenna makes his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Australian-born Krystii Melaine announced at age four that she would be an artist, won her first art competition at seven, and was selling paintings by age fourteen. Following university studies in painting and drawing, Melaine became a successful wedding gown designer.
Returning to her lifelong passion for painting, she studied traditional tonal realism for five years. Inspired by the wildlife, Native Americans, and cowboys of the American West, Melaine began painting these subjects in Australia, then moved to Spokane, Washington. Using oils in a contemporary realism style, Melaine portrays the people and animals of the West with a modern eye for fresh images, bringing each individual to life on her canvas.
Melaine’s paintings feature in major museum exhibitions including Night of Artists , Quest for the West, Western Visions, and the Buffalo Bill Art Show. She has twenty-six paintings in museum collections, continues to win numerous awards, and features in many magazine articles.
Melaine is represented by Sanders Galleries in Tucson; Mountain Trails Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming, Park City, Utah, and Bozeman, Montana; Santa Fe Trails Gallery in Santa Fe; Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs; Going to the Sun Gallery in Whitefish, Montana; Big Horn Galleries in Cody, Wyoming; Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona; and Trailside Galleries online. She is a master signature member of the American Women Artists and a member of the Portrait Society of America.
Born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1957, Dean has developed a proficiency in many media including watercolors, egg tempera, oils, and pastels. During his four-decade-long career, Dean has become well known for his figurative works, landscapes, and still lifes. At the age of twenty-three, he became the youngest artist ever accepted into the National Watercolor Society; just five years later, he was admitted into the American Watercolor Society. He holds numerous gold medals from these and other prestigious painting associations worldwide. His awards now number in the hundreds, and his work is featured in museums, corporate, and private collections throughout the country. The New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman praised him as a “modern-day Vermeer.”
His works are held in several museums, including the Mississippi Museum of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, The Autry National Center, the Library of Congress, Hubbard Museum of the American West, Hunstville Museum of Art, and Quanhua Art Museum in Shanghai, China. Dean has won over 600 awards including gold and silver medals in the American Watercolor Society International Exhibition, the Robert M. Lougheed Memorial Award at Prix de West, the Premier Platinum Award at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Art for the Parks $50,000 Grand Prize, and Whitney Museum of the West Award Purchase Prize.
Dean currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
Roaming the canyons and fields around the small central Utah town where he grew up gave James Morgan an appreciation of nature’s wonders. He learned to see not only the larger vista but also the resident wildlife and intimate aspects of the area. He now lives in northern Utah, where inspiration is just out the back door.
“Nature’s ever-changing moods are a wellspring of inspiration. The excitement for me is constantly exploring new ways to interpret nature. I am convinced that no one can improve on natural compositions, when they can be isolated. Rhythms too, can be magical if you can isolate them, and that gets easier with experience. It comes from trusting your own vision. It is the way you look at things and see something lyrical or harmonious. I am intrigued by the patterns and shapes found in nature and concentrate on the effects of light on these elements and the resulting array of colors.”
Morgan has been honored with the Autry National Center James R. Parks Trustee Purchase Award in 2014 and a Steamboat Art Museum retrospective exhibition in 2019, among other honors. He is a member of the National Academy of Western Art, Northwest Rendezvous Group, Society of Animal Artists, and Plein Air Painters of America. His work appears in many private and public collections, and is represented by Wood River Fine Arts, Simpson-Gallagher Gallery, Trailside Gallery, Gerald Peters Gallery, Gallery 1261, Claggett/Rey Gallery, and InSight Gallery.
Brenda Murphy’s love for the West is evident in her sensitively rendered drawings of horses, Native Americans, cowboys, and ranch life. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in Dallas before establishing a career in fine art.
Murphy has received numerous awards for her artwork, including the 2003 Patron’s Purchase Award at the Bosque Art Classic in Clifton, Texas; the 2005 Patron’s Choice Award at Western Visions at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming; the 2006 Museum Purchase Award at the Desert Caballeros Museum’s Cowgirl Up! in Wickenburg, Arizona; and the 2008 Patron’s Choice Award at the National Cowgirl Museum’s Heart of the West Art Show and Auction in Fort Worth, Texas. She has been featured in major publications such as Art of the West, Southwest Art and Western Horseman . She is represented by Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Jackson, Wyoming, and Settlers West Fine American Art Galleries in Tucson, Arizona.
Born and raised in Texas, Murphy fosters a close relationship with her models, who provide inspiration, resources, and a valued critical eye to ensure authenticity in her work. She and her husband Tom reside in Arlington, Texas, where she maintains a studio in her home.
Artist Ed Natiya (Navajo) captures the essence of Indigenous peoples from an authentic perspective. He is driven by the need to explore the wisdom of long ago and the genuine nature of Native peoples. His sculpture and artwork radiate with life, love, and beauty and speak to young and old alike. He sculpts stories and Native wisdom as it once was, in hopes that these teachings and values may be remembered and appreciated for years to come.
Natiya’s work shows in numerous galleries, museums, and universities throughout the United States. He has received numerous awards for his creative depictions of Native American culture and history, including the prestigious Best of Class, the top award in sculpture at the 2016 Indian Market Show. He now sculpts full-time and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Jayme.
Portrait by Mikel Donahue
Nebeker grew up in and around Prescott, Arizona and lived on the Long Meadow Ranch as a young boy, watching his father as a working cowboy. His early life was filled with horses, cattle, roundups, and brandings. Stories of the local Yavapai tribal traditions, and their raids on the nearby Historic American Ranch developed his imagination about Native American tribes and culture. Whether his art depicts cowboys, old west outlaws, famous lawmen, or Indigenous tribal members, Nebeker’s sculptures capture the true sense of the characters he creates.
Recognized as a preeminent sculptor of the horse and cowboy, Nebeker has worked on several Arizona ranches, including the K4, Lobo Ranch, and the ORO. He has participated in team roping events nationwide and at the Arizona Cowpunchers Reunion Rodeos, giving his sculptures the real flavor of historic and contemporary Western life.
Nebeker has many large bronze public statues at institutions around the country including one at the Briscoe Western Art Museum and a life-sized portrait bronze of Robert C. Norris at Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. In April of 2024 he unveiled a larger-than-life bronze statue at the Prescott Regional Airport of WWI fighter pilot, Ernest A. Love, his fourth monumental bronze for his hometown.
As a member of the Cowboy Artists of America since 1978, Nebeker is now a senior active member. He is honored to have served four terms as President of CAA and privileged to have worked alongside the greats in this field.
Don Oelze was born in New Zealand, and at an early age, he was fascinated by America and especially by the lifestyle of cowboys and Indians. He started drawing Indians at a very early age, and by the time he was in school, he was used to getting into trouble for drawing Indians and cowboys in class instead of paying attention. When he was eight years old, his parents moved back to the United States. Oelze completed his education at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.
In 1992, while living in Seattle, he met a Native American named Everett who created Native art and totems. While working with Everett, Oelze did his first big Native painting. After trying many different subjects, he knew that painting Native Americans was what he loved to do most. Oelze’s next move was taking a job in Japan, and for ten years, he refined his skills and produced many paintings and drawings in his small Tokyo studio. In 2004, he and his wife, Utako, moved back to the United States. They are presently living in Montana, where he is studying the country and people that he loves to paint. Oelze has participated in shows both in the United States and abroad.
Dustin Payne (b. 1981) is known for his Western portrayal of history in bronze sculpture. With his traditional style, he encapsulates the feeling and detail of the Western way of life.
You can find Payne’s life-size monument honoring the history of the Texas Rangers, The Legend, The Lore, The Law at the Texas Rangers Heritage Center in Fredericksburg, Texas.
In 2017, Payne was inducted into the renowned Cowboy Artists of America, winning the gold medal for sculpture at the 2021 show, as well as the Ray Swanson Memorial Award for Tales of the Trail, and the silver award for sculpture in 2023 for Lone Star Legacy. In 2022, True West Magazin e named Payne, Best Western Bronze Artist in their annual Best of the West Edition.
That same year, Payne’s work was featured at The Sons of Charlie Russell Exhibition at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio. Payne divides his time between Wyoming and Texas throughout the year, where he lives with his wife and their two sons, both of whom actively compete in high school and college rodeo.
Born in 1960, Vic Payne is a renowned sculptor who breathes life into the American West. Growing up on a New Mexico ranch, he was captivated by tales of Billy the Kid, the Lincoln County Wars, and the art of Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington. These stories, coupled with the Code of the West values—integrity, hard work, self-reliance, loyalty, and respect— molded Payne’s character and artistic vision.
For over 45 years, Payne’s sculptures have enthralled audiences with their meticulous detail and imaginative portrayal of wildlife, Native American, and Western themes. His work blends historical reverence with artistic excellence. Payne’s extensive research and immersion in his subjects capture the true essence of the American West.
Payne’s sculptures are featured in prestigious collections worldwide, including Cabela's stores, the Booth Museum, the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
In 1991, he founded Mountain Trails Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and successfully expanded to UT, WY, and AZ. As demand for his work grew, Vic sold the galleries to their directors to focus exclusively on his art. In June 2021, Payne and his wife, Angie, repurchased the Santa Fe location, renaming it Santa Fe Trails Fine Art. Today, the Paynes reside in Wyoming's Cody/ Meeteetse area, where the rich history and stunning landscapes continue to inspire his creative spirit.
Chad Poppleton has been passionate about art and the outdoors for as long as he can remember. He studied at Utah State University under the direction of Glen Edwards and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration. Poppleton continues to study the classical work of the impressionists and Renaissance masters.
In 2018, Poppleton achieved a lifelong dream when he was inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America. He has been profiled in Sporting Classics, Art of the West, Western Art Collector, and Southwest Art Magazine. He is a member of the C. M. Russell Museum’s Skull Society of Artists. Poppleton exhibits at The Russell at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana; National Museum of Wildlife Art; Scottsdale Art Auction; and Jackson Hole Art Auction.
Earning the Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award from the National Museum of Wildlife Art was a proud accomplishment. “As an artist, my objective is to represent the subjects of wildlife correctly and accurately to the best of my ability. It’s critically important for me to pick up each little difference in nature and portray that in the canvas to engage the viewer emotionally within the piece.”
An avid sportsman and conservationist, Poppleton spends as much time in the field as he does at the easel. His paintings are a reflection of his love for animals, wilderness areas, and the great outdoors.
A third-generation Arizonian, Howard Post was born in Tucson, where he still lives. He grew up on a small ranch and attended the University of Arizona, completing bachelor of fine arts and master of fine arts degrees. For many years, Post worked as a graphic designer and illustrator. After serving on the faculty at both the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, he began painting full-time.
Among Post's many awards are the 2012 Victor Higgins Award and the 2017 Artist of Distinction Award at Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis; the 2012 Gold Medal for Painting at The West Select: A Western Art Invitational Sale and Exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum; the 2010 Best of Show Award at the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale in Denver; and the 2010 Great American Cowboy Award at the Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. In 2018, his one-man show, The West Observed: The Art of Howard Post, was held at the Tucson Museum of Art and traveled to the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, and the Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona.
Post's work is in the collections of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming; Denver Art Museum; Briscoe Western Art Museum; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; and the Tucson Museum of Art. His work has also been featured in Art News, Art of the West, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, and Western Art & Architecture.
Born in Alabama in 1972, Scott Tallman Powers has dedicated his life to the world of art. His artistic journey began early, influenced by his father, a professional illustrator and fine artist. After four years of study at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Powers embarked on a career as an illustrator at a local advertising agency before pursuing his lifelong dream of fine art.
Powers immerses himself in the life of ranches to gather subject matter for his paintings, allowing him to honor this rich heritage through his artwork. His quest for inspiration takes him around the world, where he seeks out new cultures and experiences and conveys them with honesty and integrity through his art.
Powers’s work graces the walls of esteemed institutions such as the Wengyuan Museum of Fine Art and the Shaoguan Museum of Fine Art in China and the Academy Museum in Easton, Maryland, as well as the homes and offices of collectors across the United States.
Scott’s artistic achievements include winning numerous prizes and participating in museum shows in China, Israel, and Europe. His work is in the permanent collection in the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art and has been featured in renowned publications such as American Artist, Western Art and Architecture, Southwest Art, American Artist Workshop, Art of the West, and Western Art Collector.
Residing in Butte, Montana, Scott Tallman Powers is represented by Settlers West Gallery in Tucson.
Born in 1973 amid the landscapes of Northridge, California, Tony Pro’s parents planted the seeds of his devotion to the Western art genre with their fervor for Western art and Native artifacts, and his artistic odyssey was shaped by the tutelage of his father, Julio Pro, a renowned Southwest wildlife painter, and his brother Greg, an accomplished illustrator. Graduating from California State University, Northridge, with a degree in graphic design, Pro honed his drawing skills under the mentorship of the late illustrator Glen Orbik. It was during this phase that he imbibed the essence of academic figure drawing, integrating its discipline into his craft. Guided by luminaries like Richard Schmid, he evolved into an adept self-taught painter.
In 2005 Daniel Gerhartz bestowed upon Pro the prestigious Best in Show Award at the 14th Annual Oil Painters of America Show. His prowess was further affirmed through finalist Awards of Honor from the Portrait Society of America Show, culminating in the crowning achievement of the first-place award at the 2014 Portrait Society of America International Competition for his poignant masterpiece, Last Train Home .
Residing in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, Elizabeth, and children, Pro’s creative sanctum thrives. His works, profound narratives etched in color, adorn museums and private collections worldwide, testaments to a lifelong devotion to the brush’s dance.
Kevin Red Star was born on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana. He attended the newly founded Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and then received a full scholarship to San Francisco Art Institute. He received an honorary doctorate from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, in 1997 and one from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in 2010.
In 2018 Red Star received both the James R. Parks Trustee Purchase Award at the Autry Museum’s Masters of the American West in Los Angeles and the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts in Helena.
“Indian culture has in the past been ignored to a great extent. It is, for me, as well as for many other Indian artists, a rich source of creative expression. An intertwining of my Indian culture with contemporary art expression has given me a greater insight concerning my art. I hope to accomplish something for the American Indian and at the same time achieve personal satisfaction in a creative statement through my art.”
Red Star is proudly represented by Courtney Collins Gallery, Big Sky, Montana; Sorrel Sky Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Durango, Colorado; Dana Gallery, Missoula, Montana; Montana Modern Fine Art, Kalispell, Montana; and Old Main Gallery, Bozeman, Montana.
Grant Redden was born and raised in southwest Wyoming on a sheep and cattle ranch. The work, always a family affair, instilled in Redden a love for the landscape, the animals, and the people of the west. Horses were an integral part of the operation and, naturally, they are a major part of his art. Redden believes these animals have their own personalities and characteristics which reveal themselves and hopefully are portrayed in his paintings.
Born of pioneer stock, he developed a strong attachment to the land, the life, and the history of the west. He is also dedicated to the study of the great masters in painting and sculpture. Almost equal to the subject matter in importance is the craft of painting - beauty in design, color, texture, and emotional impact.
Inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America in 2012, Redden has since been awarded 6 Gold medals and 2 Silver medals in oil painting, a Silver in Watercolor Painting, the Ann Marion Best of Show in 2017, and three time winner of the award for best group of paintings voted by the artists at the annual CAA show. Grant has been included in the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale since 2022. He was awarded the Wilson Hurley Memorial Award for Outstanding Landscape in 2024.
Redden and his wife Annette raised 8 children on a small patch of sagebrush and aspen groves in southwest Wyoming. He is continuing his education in art and living. "Just trying to get better."
After receiving an associate of arts degree in 1984 in painting and drawing, Paul Rhymer worked at the Smithsonian Institution doing taxidermy and model-making for twentyfive years. He retired in 2010. Having done so much three-dimensional work in his job, in the late 1990s, he gradually began to move from painting and drawing into sculpture.
In 2023 Rhymer was named Birds in Art Master Wildlife Artist. He is a fellow with the National Sculpture Society and a distinguished signature member of the Society of Animal Artists. His work has been exhibited in Birds in Art at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin (2008–2023); the Society of Animal Artists Annual Exhibition (2007–2023); the National Sculpture Society Annual Awards Exhibition (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2022, and 2023); and the Brookgreen Gardens Masters Exhibition (2013). He had a solo exhibition at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in 2010.
Some of his many public art installations are at the Briscoe Western Art Museum; Smithsonian’s National Zoo; Denver Zoo; NatureWorks Monuments, Tulsa, Oklahoma; the City Park, Hagerstown, Maryland; Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum; Shepard Park, Summerville, South Carolina; and B.I.R.D.S., Summerville, South Carolina.
Gary Lynn Roberts, being a storyteller, welcomes viewers into his canvases. His love of horses, rodeo, and the beautiful landscape in which he resides has helped him develop a style of realism and impressionism. Carrying on the traditions of painting in oils, Roberts is a third-generation artist, his major influence being his father, noted Western artist Joe Rader Roberts.
Roberts started winning awards for his art at the tender age of fourteen at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Over the years, his talent has won him best of show and people’s choice awards on several occasions. He received the Honorary Chairman Award and Best of Show Award for the same painting at The Russell at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, a rare accomplishment. Roberts is also a member of the C. M. Russell Skull Society of Artists.
His paintings have graced the cover of several magazines and hang in some of the most prestigious collections. Roberts currently resides in Hamilton, Montana, with his wife Nancy and their two children, Mary and Anna.
For Alfredo Rodriguez, painting was as much a part of his childhood development as learning to walk and speak. Some of his earliest memories are of illustrating classroom assignments and painting portraits of family members with one of his earliest gifts, a set of watercolors he received from his mother when he was six. Born and raised in Mexico in a family of nine children, Alfredo used his talent to supplement his family’s income needs.
Rodriguez now lives in California and has won top awards from several prestigious organizations. His work has been exhibited at numerous noteworthy invitational art shows around the country, including Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. Rodriguez is an annual exhibitor at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio and Settlers West Gallery in Tucson, and the Favel Museum of Western Art in Klamath Falls, Oregon, which honored Rodriguez with the 1991 Artist of the Year award, has his work on permanent display.
A professional artist since 1968, when he sold his first original painting, Rodriguez is internationally recognized for his outstanding paintings of the American West. His rich and vivid images of mountains, deserts, and Indian villages are admired wherever they are displayed, but it is his portrayal of the inhabitants of the land that provides the focal point of his work. As he paints, he captures the dignity of the human spirit elevated by the majestic beauty of their surroundings.
Julia Rogers began her career as a wildlife painter at the age of seventeen. She has traveled far and wide to feed her passion for the outdoors and its natural beauty, which is reflected in her portfolio of work. Painting en plein air , figurative work, landscape, and portraiture are all part of her discipline.
She studied fine art in college, but her passion for learning has never ended. She not only teaches workshops from time to time, but she also loves being the student. She has been rewarded for her efforts by having her work exhibited in numerous prestigious venues, including the Hiram Blauvelt Museum, Oradell, New Jersey; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Cincinnati Museum Center; Briscoe Western Art Museum; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; and the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, St. Petersburg, Florida. Her work is included in many permanent museum collections.
Annual exhibitions she takes part in include Night of Artists , Briscoe Western Art Museum; Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Charleston, South Carolina, at which she was the featured artist in 2022; the Waterfowl Festival, Easton, Maryland, at which she was the featured artist in 2017; Western and Wildlife Art Show , Baltimore Life Insurance, Baltimore, Maryland; and the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art.
International award-winning artist Roldánde-Moras is known for the unique style in which she portrays vivid Spanish traditions, including gallant Mexican escaramuzas riding horses side saddle in a vivid rodeostyle festival, romantic Flamenco dancers clad in exuberant Andalusian dresses, and old-fashioned, delicate damsels in intimate, exquisite poses. Having lived in San Antonio for over thirty years, she finds great inspiration in representing her love of the Spanish culture that was passed down by her maternal grandfather, a proud lifelong charro who decades ago helped promote Charreria as the official national sport in Mexico.
Roldán-de-Moras’s lustrous work – always lively and dramatic – has landed in many important private and public permanent collections. Her art has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, Art of the West, Southwest Art, American Western Art Collector, Western Art and Architecture, Architectural Digest European Edition, and many more.
A master signature member of the American Impressionist Society and American Women Artists, Roldán-de-Moras was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2023, and the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 2024. She is represented by InSight Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas.
Stefan Savides’s talents could be measured by his accomplishments in the art world, which are many and have spanned a lifetime—but what is more important is the essence of his life. Since he was a young adult, he has built a thriving career in art outside the box. Only a blessed few are born into this world with a passion that was not to be interrupted by the complexity of the modern day we live in.
Savides has embraced a total connection to the beauty and teachings of nature, which has guided his choices at each crossroad he’s encountered. The common thread that binds his life are birds, and his work embodies the fruit of that journey.
He’s the real deal! His work can be found in public installations, museum collections and galleries across the county.
One of the originators of the Western pop art movement, Billy Schenck incorporates techniques from photorealism with a pop art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the West. Schenck is known for utilizing cinematic imagery reproduced in a flattened, reductive style, where colors are displayed side-by-side rather than blended or shadowed. In the August 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine, his work was described as “a pendulum between the romantic and the irreverent.”
Schenck’s artwork is now in sixty museum collections, including Smithsonian Institution, Albuquerque Museum, Autry Museum of the American West, Booth Western Art Museum, Briscoe Western Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, and Tucson Museum of Art, as well as in private and corporate collections such as those of American Airlines, IBM, Sony, and Saatchi and Saatchi. His work has been showcased in more than 120 solo shows in the United States and Europe.
A genuine cowboy himself, Schenck is a ranchsorting world champion and the proprietor of the Double Standard Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his home for the past two decades.
Jason Scull grew up in a family that farmed and ranched on the fringes of the South Texas brush country. His ancestors, early settlers who arrived in Texas in the mid-1820s, ranched, raised families, fought wars, and carved their place into the American West. It is from his early experiences and heritage that his art has been shaped, directed, and inspired.
Scull’s life with cattle and horses coupled with his respect for the culture of the American West have long inspired his art. He studied animal science at Texas A&M and returned to the family ranch, where he remained involved in the operation until 2010. His early study of sculpture began in 1987 through the Cowboy Artists of America Museum workshop program. Additional education came in the form of personal study with established artists, most notably Jack Swanson, Mehl Lawson, and Cynthia Rigden. Scull was a member of the Cowboy Artists of America from 2011 to 2022.
Scull’s most recent awards include the Jim Bowie Award for Sculpture at the Briscoe Western Art Museum 2023 Night of Artists . He and his wife, Dianne, make their home in the Texas Hill Country near Kerrville, Texas.
Kelly Singleton was born and raised in rural Maryland. Her passion for animals was instilled early on, and growing up, she expressed this passion through art. She attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration. After an over twenty-year career as a graphic artist, Singleton relocated to northern Colorado and became a full-time artist.
Singleton makes frequent trips into local and national parks of the western United States to observe and gather references of wildlife. These trips fuel inspiration for new work. Back home in the studio, she brings her paintings to life in oils. She hopes her work draws attention to the beauty of nature and conveys the importance of preserving it.
Singleton is a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin, and many private collections. She participates in several prominent national shows each year including: Night of Artists , Western Vision, and Small Works Great Wonders, Her work is represented by Montana Trails Gallery, Bozeman, Montana.
Matt Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1960. At an early age he moved to Arizona where he developed his lifelong connection to the Sonoran Desert and the great outdoors. This was a connection that would eventually influence his decision to paint the landscape. As a teenager he also lived two years in France and one year in Switzerland. While in Europe, he had the opportunity to visit many of the great museums which helped solidify his love for art.
In 1985, Smith earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Arizona State University. Somewhat frustrated with the abstract focus of the program at ASU he began looking to outside sources for inspiration and guidance. These sources included fellow artists, fine galleries and museums. This is where his "real" education began.
These days, Smith can often be found painting en plein air from southern Arizona to the Canadian Rockies, from the California coast to the Rocky Mountains. "I appreciate traditional landscape painting, and I am inspired by the pristine landscapes of the American West. I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without seeing the influence of man. When I paint, I feel I've hit the mark when I've captured a balance between mood, look and feel.”
Smith currently lives in Arizona.
Daniel Sprick creates meticulously rendered paintings whose muted palettes and sense of stillness encourage slow contemplation. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now based in Denver, Colorado, Sprick refined his masterful technique through studies at the Ramon Froman School of Art, the National Academy of Design in New York, and earned degrees from Mesa College and the University of Northern Colorado.
His diverse body of work spans portraiture, still life, and figurative compositions, capturing subjects from all walks of life with equal dedication and sensitivity. Though his paintings demonstrate exceptional technical skill, Sprick transcends pure representation, creating works that acknowledge life's complexities while celebrating its inherent beauty.
Ezra Tucker’s wildlife art is reminiscent of the descriptive art of naturalists like John James Audubon and John Gould and the work of wildlife artists like Bob Khun, Carl Rungius, and Antoine-Louis Barye. His compositions reflect the natural behaviors and postures of wildlife— poised to step into a three-dimensional world. He achieves a romantic appeal with his color palette and lighting of his subjects that is familiar but new to contemporary wildlife art.
Tucker has a bachelor of fine arts degree in advertising design from the Memphis Academy of Arts in Memphis, Tennessee. He has exhibited at Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum; Bu alo Bill Art Show and Sale at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming; The Russell at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana; the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina; American Miniatures at the Settlers West Fine American Art Galleries in Tucson, Arizona; the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.
Tucker’s work has been featured in Western Art Collector, Western Art & Architecture, Sporting Classics, The Post & Courier, Southwest Art, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, International Artist Magazine, and A frican Hunting Gazette.
His work is in many museum and private collections. Tucker is a member of the Society of Animal Artists.
A native of Sweden, Kent Ullberg is recognized as one of world’s foremost wildlife sculptors. He studied at the Swedish University College of Art in Stockholm, worked at museums in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Africa, and Denver, Colorado, and now lives on Padre Island, Corpus Christi, Texas.
Ullberg is a member of numerous art organizations and has been honored with many prestigious awards, including the Briscoe Legacy Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Animal Artists, and the Rungius Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, given to artists, authors and conservationists who have made significant contributions to the interpretation and conservation of wildlife and its habitat. In 1990 his peers elected him a Full Academician (NA), thus making him the first wildlife artist since John James Audubon to receive one of the greatest tributes in American art.
Ullberg has installed more than one hundred public sculptures in the United States and internationally. HisFort Lauderdale, Florida, and Omaha, Nebraska, installations—the largest bronze wildlife compositions ever done, spanning several city blocks—earned him the coveted Henry Hering Medal from the National Sculpture Society, New York City.
During the summer of 2017 Millesgården, Stockholm, Sweden, hosted a retrospective show with forty-two of Ullberg’s sculptures. In September 2019 he installed a twenty-onefoot monument entitled Wings of Hope, Hands of Healing at the Mays Cancer Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Born and raised in rural southeastern Colorado, Michael Ome Untiedt maintains a studio in Denver. Through the color, brush strokes, and symbolic subject matter of his paintings, he examines the human predicament and its connections to the landscape,
“Many of my paintings have the look and feel of the American West...this is the place where I was born and raised. I know the rattle of cottonwoods on a cold fall morning, the hue of dusk's long light on a buffalo grass prairie; I have drunk the cold drip of a blue shale spring. These things have nurtured me from my birth, and coyotes, God's Dogs, have howled their essence into my soul.”
He was made an honorary ranger captain with the Former Texas Ranger Foundation, Fredericksburg, Texas, for his paintings of the Texas Rangers. He was awarded the 2014 Wells Fargo Gold Award, and the 2021 Buffalo Bill Quick Draw People’s Choice Award at the Bu alo Bill Art Show and Sale at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
His work may be viewed on his website, www. michaelomeuntiedt.com, and at InSight Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas; Sanders Galleries, Tucson, Arizona; and Cawdrey Gallery, Whitefish, Montana.
In February 2002, Dustin Van Wechel left a successful eight-year career in the advertising industry to pursue his lifelong passion for fine art full-time.
Since then, he has earned numerous distinctions, including the 2020 Twodimensional Award of Excellence, 2018 People’s Choice Award, and 2015 Premier Platinum Award at the Bu alo Bill Art Show and Sale at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming; the Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award at the 2022 and the 2015 Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles; and the Wildlife Award and Teton Lodge Company Award at the 2006 Arts for the Parks competition. He has been featured in such leading art publications as Art of the West, The Artist’s Magazine, Drawing, Fine Art Connoisseur, Pastel Journal, Southwest Art, and Western Art Collector.
Van Wechel’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States in one-man shows, major art exhibitions, and museums, including the Autry Museum of the American West; the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia; the Buffalo Bill Center for the West; the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.
He and his wife, Yvonne, currently reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Dustin Van Wechel is represented by the Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Illume Gallery West, Philipsburg, Montana; and Trailside Galleries online.
Randy Van Beek has been a full-time artist since 1980. He is self-taught, having learned his craft by studying the nineteenth-century American, Dutch, and Austrian masters.
As a student of history, he has chosen as his primary subject the American West, including landscapes and historical Native American encampment scenes. Van Beek enjoys researching tribal history, visiting campsites, and creating paintings on location to capture the soul and spirit of a place.
Van Beek is honored to be a charter member of the C. M. Russell Skull Society of Artists, which was established in 2013 with the mission to continue the legacy of Charlie Russell’s art. He has also exhibited at Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.
Van Beek has received awards from the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, both in Washington, D.C.; the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula, Montana; the Clymer Museum and Gallery in Ellensburg, Washington; and the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction in Lincoln, Montana. His work has been featured in five national art magazines, most recently in Western Art & Architecture .
Jim Vogel was born in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1964, the eleventh of twelve children. His parents encouraged him to pursue drawing and painting, allowing his natural talents to develop without formal training. Growing up in Roswell, Vogel was exposed to and influenced by regional artists such as Peter Hurd, Luis Jimenez, Elmer Schooley, Howard Cook, and Georgia O’Keefe through his many visits to the Roswell Museum of Art.
Vogel paints to tell the stories of New Mexico, the stories told to him by his grandfather, his mother, and his friends and neighbors of the Embudo Valley, as well as the land itself. He believes that when they are recreated properly, these stories transcend the region and become universal.
Vogel’s wife Christen is also an artist, and the two collaborate on framing his paintings using her creative salvage arts talents. “Our greatest collaboration has been our three children, Grayson, Sage, and Makaela, who are all amazing young adults pursuing their own creative paths.”
Vogel received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2016 and, in 2024, won the Artist Purchase Award at the Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Night of Artists . His work has been represented by Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for over eighteen years.
A two-time winner of the Prix de West Purchase Award, Morgan Weistling is known for his paintings of the American frontier spirit.
Weistling’s intimate portrayals shed new light on the Old West as he captures the mood and atmosphere of the past. His oils are filled with lush brushwork that express his love for storytelling. His attention to detail and the historical aspects of his subjects comes from his desire to portray the truth and beauty of America’s pioneering spirit. A great deal of research goes into each painting, and he has spent his life collecting artifacts of the Old West to lend an authenticity to each painting.
His paintings have graced the covers of Art of the West, Persimmon Hill, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, American Artist, and US Art magazines and are part of the permanent collections of many major Western museums, including the Briscoe Western Art Museum.
Kim Wiggins is a modernist painter from New Mexico, whose distinct style and modern vision have made him one of the most recognizable artists in America today. He is celebrated as a pioneer of the New West Movement. Although primarily self-taught, he was mentored early on by the iconic artists Alexandre Hogue and Henriette Wyeth. Wiggins was discovered in 1972 by an art dealer from Scottsdale, and by 1983 he was the youngest member of the Society of American Impressionists, exhibiting alongside George Carlson, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Sandy Scott.
Wiggins has won numerous awards and accolades, including the 2022 Briscoe Western Art Museum Purchase Award, the 2020 Gold Medal for Best Narrative at the Autry Museum, the 2018 Briscoe Western Art Museum’s William B. Travis Award for Patron’s Choice, and the 2014 New Mexico Historical Society’s Heritage Award. A collection of ten of Wiggins’ works documenting the history of California is housed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Wiggins was recently honored by the NAACP with an extensive commission to document various aspects of Black history, and these four major works were unveiled on June 17, 2023, at the Dayton Art Institute. In November 2024, Wiggins exhibited at a large-scale solo show with Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Jeremy Winborg is best known for his figurative work of Indigenous subjects that blend realism with abstract backgrounds. He has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Sam Houston award, and has been featured in all of the leading Western art magazines.
Winborg focuses on creating art that preserves a bit of history on each canvas. Winborg is well-known for his bold brushwork and palette knife work on his colorful backgrounds. He enjoys the juxtaposition of realism and abstraction.
“I love to paint empowered women. I want the viewer to be drawn in and feel the emotion of the figure—whether it’s happiness, sorrow, or whatever that emotion may be. I want the subject to draw the viewer in and the brushstrokes and design to be the reason they want to stop and look for a while, or to enjoy that painting for a lifetime. A painting is a success to me if it conveys emotion and is interesting in small pieces as well as a whole.”
Winborg, his wife, Danielle, and their five kids and two dogs call Utah home while not traveling across the United States in their motor home looking for inspiration for his next painting.
Born in the year of the Horse, Xiang Zhang (pronounced “Shong Zang”) grew up in China. After graduating from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, he received a master of fine arts degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. Upon moving to Texas, Zhang combined his love for painting horses and portraiture to develop his art. Based on his observations on working ranches, his work reflects the symbiotic relationship between the cowboy and his horse. Using scintillating colors and bravura brushwork to capture the drama of ranch life, he has created a definitive style that has catapulted him to new heights in the art world.
Zhang’s work has been exhibited in prestigious national shows such as the Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum; and Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. He has had numerous successful one-man shows, and his work has been featured in Western Traditions, Contemporary Artists of the American West, Art of the West, Southwest Art Collector, and Fine Art Connoisseur.
He currently resides in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Lily. Xiang Zhang is represented by Southwest Art Gallery in Dallas, Texas, and McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
William Alther 32, 118
Brandon Bailey 33, 118
Greg Beecham 34, 119
Thomas Blackshear 35, 119
Teal Blake 36, 120
Eric Bowman 18, 37, 120
Mary Ross Bucholz 38, 121
Nancy Bush 39, 121
Shawn Cameron 40, 122
Caroline Korbell Carrington 41, 122
William Carrington 42, 123
G. Russell Case 43, 123
Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey 44, 124
Sean Michael Chavez 45, 124
Bruce Cheever 46, 125
Scott Christensen 47, 125
John Coleman 14, 48, 126
Nicholas Coleman 49, 126
Todd Connor 50, 127
Brent Cotton 51, 127
Eddie Dixon 52, 128
Mikel Donahue 53, 128, 145
C. Michael Dudash 54, 129
Josh Elliot 55, 129
Teresa Elliot 22, 56, 130
Martin Grelle 1, 57, 130
Brian Grimm 58, 131
Enrique Guerra 59, 131
Abigail Gutting 60, 132
William Haskell 61, 132
Matthew Hillier 62, 133
Quang Ho 63, 133
Donna Howell-Sickles 64, 134
Chris Hunt 65, 134
Jerry Jordan 66, 135
Mark Kohler 67, 135
Joe Kronenberg 68, 136
Bruce Lawes 69, 136
T. Allen Lawson 70, 137
Z. S. Liang 71, 137
Jeremy Lipking 72, 138
Huihan Liu 73, 138
Kyle Ma 4, 74, 139
Jan Mapes 75, 139
Bonnie Marris 76, 140
Walter Matia 17, 77. 140
Curt Mattson 78, 141
Sally Maxwell 79, 141
Kenny McKenna 80, 142
Krystii Melanie 81, 142
Dean Mitchell 82, 143
James Morgan 83, 143
Brenda Murphy 84, 144
Ed Natiya 19, 85, 144
Bill Nebeker 86, 145
Don Oelze 87, 145
Dustin Payne 88, 146
Vic Payne 89, 146
Chad Poppleton 90, 147
Howard Post 91, 147
Scott Tallman Powers 92, 148
Tony Pro 93, 148
Grant Redden 94, 149
Kevin Red Star 95, 149
Paul Rhymer 96, 150
Gary Lynn Roberts 97, 150
Alfredo Rodriguez 98, 151
Julia Rogers 99, 151
Gladys Roldán-de-Moras 100, 152
Stefan Savides 101, 152
Billy Schenck 102, 153
Jason Scull 103, 153
Kelly Singleton 104, 154
Matt Smith 105, 154
Daniel Sprick 106, 155
Ezra Tucker 107, 155
Kent Ullberg 108, 156
Michael Ome Untiedt 109, 156
Randy Van Beek 110, 157
Dustin Van Wechel 111, 157
Jim Vogel 20, 30, 112, 158
Morgan Weistling 16, 113, 158
Kim Wiggins 114, 159
Jeremy Winborg 115, 159
Xiang Zhang 116, 160
For over 75 years, The RK Group has continued to elevate the art of hospitality. As a preferred and established event partner of the Briscoe Museum, we are honored to help bring events like the Night of Artists to life with catering, decor and more.
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