WAOW Artistry of the West

The WAOW Artistry is slowly being built to provide a page on our site to promote each artist. This project began late summer 2024. We have over 300 members to load here on their pages. You can search by name, location or by subject matter to find an artist.

Pokey Park • Arizona & Massachusetts • waow

Pokey Park is a sculptor extraordinaire whose early and endearing love of both nature and art are the foundation for her whimsical, magical creations.  Her kinship and communion with nature and its inhabitants results in uniquely stylized bronzes of animals of every size, shape and species.   Pokey studies wildlife in natural habitats so she can get a feel for their personalities, not just their anatomy.  Their personalities are extremely important for her to be able to give her sculpture a unique attitude.  The environment they live in sets the mood for the finished sculpture.

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Liz Bonham • Texas • waow

Her early career began when she was 15 and working as a pastel portrait artist at Six Flags.  After college, she worked as an illustrator in the children's and gift book market.  Her paintings have graced many books, including her Gold Medallion winner, "The Crippled Lamb", by Max Lucado, and her Silver Medallion winner and Angel Award or Excellence in Media winner, "Timeless Moments", by Alton Howard. Her book "The Crippled Lamb" has sold almost two million copies.  The collector edition of this book includes songs and the story recorded by the voice of Jodi Benson, the voice of "The Little Mermaid". Her books are sold around the world in different languages and her publishers include Harper Collins, Scholastic, Word, Howard and Chariot Victor.  She has also been National Show Artist for the Appaloosa Journal Magazine and was featured in the magazine. 

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Dee Kirkham • Nevada • waow

Dee Kirkham is an accomplished artist, living in the foothills of the Lake Tahoe National Forest in Nevada and has been flourishing as a distinguished fine arts oil painter for over 40 years.  Her exceptional talent in still life, figurative and plein air has put her in the forefront of the American Art Scene, won her many awards, and given her the opportunity to share her passion with students.  Her motto is “Art is my God given passion and journey – more fulfilling and beautiful shared than alone”.

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Lori Kiplinger Pandy • Colorado • waow

Artist Lori Kiplinger Pandy sculpts with empathy and energy.  She diligently researches and gets to know and understand her subjects before creating sculptures in stylized realism.   She then brings a unique understanding of anatomy and balance to her subjects. With subtle changes in posture, gesture or weight distribution she conjures up feelings of tension, anticipation or repose, which tells a story with the image that captures the spirit of a person or of nature.

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Mary Jabens • Utah • waow

Mary Jabens lives in Southern Utah and her passion for art is fueled by the scenes around her.   She seeks to communicate with the viewer the joy she sees in nature — not only the grand views, but also closer observations of her subjects that others may not see. Her use of color, texture and brushwork convey the beauty of the land while she endeavors to show the immediacy of the moment.  

Jabens strives to have a “plein air state of mind” when painting in her studio.  It has allowed her to hone her artistic skills and focus on replicating in her artworks the living senses of seeing, feeling, sound and smell that she experienced painting outdoors.  

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Cathy Sue Munson • Texas • waow

Cathy Sue Munson paints intricately detailed watercolor and gouache paintings, specializing in wildlife, longhorn cattle, western subjects and commissioned dog portraiture. 

She graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree, with honors, in Studio Art. She was featured in an article on outstanding canine artists in the April 2008 issue of Southwest Art Magazine.   The artist is widely recognized for her commissioned artwork for the University of Texas Athletics and Texas Exes alumni of their longhorn mascots, Bevo IX through current Bevo XV.  The paintings are on display in the Silver Spurs Museum at the football stadium.

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Carolyn Mock • Oklahoma • waow

Carolyn Mock is a realist artist, who has painted wildlife and western themes for many years.  She has always worked in oil because she enjoys its creamy feel and the slow drying time that allows her the opportunity to work and blend the colors as the painting evolves. Her choice of wildlife grew out of a firm belief that nature, as well as everything in it, has the right to exist.  She works to show the dignity of each individual animal and the awe of them she experiences as she paints.

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Oil Paintings, Avian Art, Birds WAOW . Oil Paintings, Avian Art, Birds WAOW .

Kim Middleton • Washington • waow

Kim Middleton is an oil painter who specializes in avian art using renaissance era glazing techniques.  This time–honored technique of layering transparent glazes with opaque layers achieves rich luminosity as light penetrates and reflects through the layers of oil paint.  This method creates a sense of volume and showcases the resplendent beauty of the colors and feather patterns found among birds. 

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Sara Ray Bloodwolf • New Mexico • waow

Descended from performers in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and legends of the old frontier. Sara’s great, great grandfather Sequah performed with Buffalo Bill Cody for crowds and sold a patented cure all “Prairie Flower” in blue glass bottles bearing his name. Her ancestry stretches to the eastern woodlands where her grandfathers were the literal inspiration for James Fenimore Coopers “Last of the Mohicans” tales, the very real exploits of her long hunter family and their fearlessness far beyond what was ever penned in his books.

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Carol Lundeen • Minnesota • waow

Carol Lundeen is an oil painter specializing in animals, both wild and domestic.  Her style is representational.  She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art from Northwest Nazarene College, Nampa, Idaho.  She continued her studies with Robert Hagberg, Jay Moore, along with a host of other master artists. 

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Becky Lucht • Oklahoma • waow

Becky Lucht is a scratchboard artist.  Her body of work reflects her ongoing love of animals, from horses and pets to wildlife, with a few fantasy creatures thrown in. They are generally rendered in the stark black and white of scratchboard, although she has been drawn to color versions of late.

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Martha Inman Lorch • California • waow

Martha Inman Lorch is known for watercolors of her favorite places.  She is inspired by her international travels, as well as her experiences closer to home.  Her style is representational, with a touch of abstract expressionism.  She uses layering, wet-in-wet techniques, and visual texture to express the soulfulness she feels for her subjects.  

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Kathy LeJeune • Louisiana • waow

Kathy LeJeune is a self-taught artist who works in pastel, graphite and charcoal.  Her drawings reflect the important role horses played in her early life — if she wasn’t riding them, she was drawing them.  She spent wonderful childhood days riding at local playdays and along country roads or in pastures.  Raising a family and teaching in Louisiana schools necessitated a break from drawing, but she found comfort and joy when she picked up her pencils again during the Covid pandemic.  She has not put them down since.  Her artistic output includes sympathetic drawings of horses and their pivotal role in western life and rodeo competitions.  Cowboys and cows get some gritty starring roles, too. 

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Sarah Kennedy • Arizona • waow

Sarah Kennedy expresses her love of the natural world, the beauty of the desert, contemporary and traditional ranch life, rodeo, horses and figurative portraiture through her oil paintings.  A sparkle in the eye, the softness of a draped mane or curved neck, the light that creates drama or luminosity, color that brings excitement or serenity are elements that infuse her work to capture life and feeling.

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Reneé Marz Mullis • New Mexico • waow

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

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Anna Lisa Leal • Texas • waow

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

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Marie Kash Weltzheimer • Oklahoma • waow

Marie Kash Weltzheimer is a representational artist whose work reflects inspirations from music and nature. She has a long history working with pastel, drawing mediums, and oils.  Common themes she explores are people, portraits, and still life, along with an occasional venture into landscapes.  Some of her recent still life compositions resemble nests.  These are symbolic to the important core value of family structure that is deeply felt, since she built her family by adoption.  A sense of order, color, love, security and support is built into the compositions.

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Reenie Kennedy • California • waow

Reenie Kennedy is an award-winning acrylic artist.  Her work reflects her love for wildlife with an emphasis on bird art.  She enjoys combining wildlife with her exquisite floral and ocean inspired backdrops, along with a touch of humor.   She believes a sense of humor in painting is one of the best ways to lift the spirits. 

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Heather R. Kaiser • Oklahoma • waow

Heather R. Kaiser is an accomplished artist, renowned for her award-winning sculptures.  Her work is primarily rendered in bronze.  She often depicts Native Americans and historical Western scenes.  She captures the layers of attitude, emotion and personality of her subjects, showcasing her deep appreciation for their strength of spirit. 

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