We invite you to explore our Artists

We carry a variety of renowned artists from the Four Corners Area and beyond. Click on an artist name to view their work.

Ceramic sculpture and mixed media.

Pablita’s Navajo name, Ta-Nez-Bah, means “one who completes a circle.”

Pablita was born and raised in the Navajo Nation. She is a self-taught artist who has pursued a lifetime of creative expression in textile and other media.

She lives and works in Washington, D.C. at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Pablita creates clay figurative sculptures that are smooth, round and sensuous and reflect her heritage. She has received many awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and her work is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of American History.

Oil painting

Sharon Abshagen grew up in Longmont, Colorado and has lived in Durango since receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Fort Lewis College.

Sharon spent many years painting watercolors and weaving large tapestries. After joining the local plein air painting group she began oil painting again and has been concentrating on this medium ever since.

She paints studio and plein aire paintings of life in the four corners region and the places she has traveled. Sharon begins her paintings by applying a thin wash of cadmium red to the canvas, then wiping it with a paper towel. The red wash allows her to create a warmer painting.

Sharon Abshagen is a member of the American Academy of Women Artists, Oil Painters of America, and the Plein Air Painters of the Four-Corners.

“I hope my art reflects an appreciation of the colors of nature and the colors of the urban landscape I like to paint. They are my inspiration,” Sharon says.

Oil painting

Edward was born in New York to a commodities broker father and a mother who raised him and his brothers while working as a wildlife photographer for National Geographic. He lived in Mt. Kisco, New York and then briefly in Nederland, Colorado outside of Boulder.

Edward graduated in 1987 from the Rhode Island School of Design and attended master classes with Robert Bateman in British Columbia. In 1991, at the age of 26, he was juried into the Society of Animal Artists and continues to show in their annual “Art and the Animal” shows. He has been accepted for nine years in the prestigious “Birds in Art” show at the Ligh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and his work is included in their permanent collection. In 1995 his work was included in the Christie’s auction in London.

Currently, Edward lives and works in Golden, Colorado depicting wildlife from around the world, painting primarily in oil. He uses several layers of glazing to convey texture and give his colors brilliant depth.

Edward is an artist dedicated to reaching beyond the realistic rendering of wildlife and the natural world. He is convinced that conveying the inherent being of an animal is integral to his work. His style breathes life into his subject and invoked the viewer into feeling that he or she is actually a witness to the scene. The viewer is not left to simply look and appreciate, but is drawn into experiencing the essence of what is depicted. In short, his is an art of feeling as well as portrayal.

"My goal as an artist is to keep exploring the idea of putting life into my paintings."

Bronze sculpture

Gerald Balciar was born in Wisconsin in 1942 and had an early interest in art, beginning in grade school. His fascination with animals dates to his childhood, growing up in rural Wisconsin amidst the dairy farms and north woods. Both art and animals have always been a part of Balciar’s life.

His art is noted for its readily identifiable artistic style, which is grounded in an in-depth knowledge of animals. For reference, he works from his extensive library of wildlife material, which includes photos, magazine clippingsand books. Balciar also uses live models as an invaluable aid in his sculptures and receives excellent cooperation from zoologists and wildlife organizations.

A consummate artist, Balciar is involved in the creative process of sculpture from beginning to end. He works his original sculpture in wax or clay and then personally makes his own molds and chases his own waxes. Once the bronze is cast at the foundry, he does the welding and metal chasing and then applies the patina and finishing touches to each bronze.

While doing a 14 foot bronze elk in 1982, Balciar devised a point up system that revolutionized the traditional enlargement process. His largest bronze sculpture to date is a 16 foot bronze moose, Centennial, which was installed in Mooseheart, Illinois, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Loyal Order of Moose. In contrast, his largest marble carving, created from a single piece of gleaming white marble, is a 16,000-pound cougar, Canyon Princess, installed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in June 1995.

Balciar is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society, and holds memberships in the National Academy of Western Art, the Society of Animal Artists, the Allied Artists of America and the Northwest Rendezvous Group. In 2007, Gerald won the James Earl Frazier award for sculpture at the Prix de West art show.

Mixed media and giclée

BJ Briner lives and works in the heart of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Taos, New Mexico. She earned her BFA from the Layton School of Art at Marquette University and then pursued private painting study at Cardinal Stritch University.

BJ’s art reflects the bold lines of high desert plateaus, pastoral settings of the pueblo, and vistas nuanced in hues where flowers, canyons, and stars become as bold as the earth and sky themselves. Her technique blends oil pencils with turpentine to achieve a brilliant saturation of color through layers and wash.

"Parts of dreams, past experiences, deja` vu moments, even an object or sound can set me on the path to painting. My imagination produces my art and my surroundings stimulate my imagination," says Briner. "I work on several different pieces at once, and the cross pollination of going from a night sky to an abstract interpretation of winter inspires me. Emotion often evolves from these conflicts of light and color, rendering layers of life onto a piece of paper, and this colored conversation of life that I have with myself beckons the onlooker, pulling them with me into the mood.”

From “Best of Show” at the Taos Spring Arts Festival, to donating works for philanthropic organizations, to works hanging in the US Justice Department, Briner’s work remains as varied as the desert plateau that not only inspires her work but cradles her life.

Raku ceramic vessels

Laura Bruzzese was born and raised in New Mexico

She earned a BA in English/Music in California, then earned a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis in painting and drawing. She worked as a scenic painter for television and film, and did portraits and commissions to help pay for college. Laura started working with clay in 1998 when she found herself limited by the two-dimensional surface of a canvas.

The raku method interested her early on, but she quickly bored of the limited glazes available for raku (shiny copper, clear crackle, a few matte colors). So Laura began experimenting with underglaze colors, which soon developed into paintings on the three dimensional vessels.

Laura continues to work from her studio in Albuquerque synthesizing traditional elements of landscape, botanical painting and traditional forms combined in a contemporary way. The New Mexico landscape, the desert palette, and her garden inspire the imagery. She is drawn to the raku method because of the unpredictability and challenges in working directly with fire; she can never make the same piece twice or completely control the process.

Each of her raku vessels is wheel thrown, painted with underglaze, and fired once, then a clear crackle glaze is applied and the second firing.

“I really like the unpredictable aspect of clay. That’s what keeps it interesting.”

Acrylic painting

Born of Comanche heritage as the great-great grandson of Chief Quanah Parker, tradition runs deep in Nocona Burgess’s family. Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, he traveled from coast-to-coast with his artistic parents and brother, and those opportunities allowed him to experience much of the country and its divergent cultures.

After a year at the University of Oklahoma, Nocona settled in Santa Fe, studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and was particularly intrigued by how traditional art forms had evolved into more contemporary styles. “I grew up knowing people like Doc Tate Nevaquaya, Rance Hood, and Allen Hauser. I liked the idea of modern Indians - after all, that’s who I am. I loved the old style, but it seemed so distant to me. To this day I enjoy painting old portraits and traditional subjects, but in my own style. In a way, when I paint my subjects speak to me and I get to know them. After looking at them for hours and hours, how can I not receive something from them? My painting is a way of saying “thank you” for all of their sacrifices.”

After drifting away from his art for a number of years, Nocona reconnected with his family and his people in 1996. After graduating with his. BS in Fine Art from The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, art was back in his life, and with the support of his wife Danielle and a move back to Santa Fe, doors began to open for him. His first show was at Red Earth in Oklahoma City. In 2000 he and his brother, Quanah Parker Burgess (also an artist) were invited to a show in Holland, and from there traveled to Belgium and Germany.

“I know now that this is where I need to be in my life. I have come full circle and my painting is alive in my soul again.”

Turned wooden vessels

Dean Carrieris a native of California and a professional wildlife biologist who lives in Paradise, California.

Finding the hidden beauty in natural objects is second nature to Dean Carrier. His carefully turned hollow vessels reflect his lifetime love of nature and an innate perception of what beauty may be hidden beneath that seemingly worthless tangle of roots and wood that has washed up on the beach, or lies covered with fallen leaves and debris on the forest floor of a northern California forest.

More recently he has begun to use a variety of western North American woods, preferring specimens with natural cracks, crevices, and bark inclusions. Crafting hollow forms from these distressed woods, he often inlays minerals and semi-precious stones for accent and diversity, striving to emphasize the natural random grain and faulting. Finishing is a laborious application of oils and fine wax.

These turnings are primarily artistic accent pieces as opposed to utilitarian items. “A few dried flowers is all I expect to find their way into these vessels,” he says

Oil painting

Bonnie was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University.

Bonnie has studied painting with William Reese, Donald Putnam, Dan Mieduch, Matt Smith, Zhang Wenzin, Gary Kapp, Jim Wilcox, Ken Baxter, Kimball Warren, Kathryn Stats and Bruce Smith. She is a signature member of the American Academy of Women Artists currently working from her studio in Woodland Hills, Utah.

In 1987, Bonnie stood before a beautiful painting and found herself saying, “I think I could do this if I just had the time.” Conrad raised six children and moved every four years because of her husband’s career. Bonnie was right and won “Best of Show” at the first exhibition she entered as a professional artist—the Dody Country National Invitational.

Conrad’s oil painting is distinct in its passion for color, its celebration of light and shadow and its somewhat impressionistic approach. Of deep concern to Bonnie is that her work should always lift the human spirit. Her use of light, design, color and choice of subjects combine in a form of beauty to which the human spirit must respond and in responding, expand and lighten.

“I want the world to be a finer, lighter, brighter place for my having painted here."


Turned wooden vessels

Glen Crandall was born in Michigan.

In November 1994, shortly after his retirement, a long-time friend gave Glen an old lathe. Although he had never used a wood lathe before, he started turning. Until recently he was entirely self-taught starting with the study of a book on the correct use of the lathe and turning tools. After that it was a matter of learning by trial and error, with a certain amount of excitement accompanying some of the errors. Recently he received some instruction from one of the top segmented wood turners in the country.

Glen lives and works in Aztec, New Mexico.

Each piece takes 50 to 60 hours or more of shop time, plus the time spent in designing and drawing. Detailed drawings are made before starting a piece. Most pots consist of from approximately 150 to more than 800 individual pieces of wood. Woods used are both domestic and imported or exotic hardwoods. No paints or stains are used. The various colors are the actual color of the woods used. The finish is clear varnish followed by a hard wax.

Glen’s designs honor the historic and pre-historic Puebloan artists who made the fascinating designs found on Native American pottery in the Southwest.

“My greatest satisfaction comes in translating those designs into wood,” Glen says.

Oil painting

Stephen Day was born in Sheridan, Wyoming. While growing up he lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Aspen and Durango, Colorado.

Stephen has a Bachelor of Arts degree from McMurry College in Abilene, Texas and a Masters Degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He studied painting at the Art Students League of Denver with Bruce Cody and Mark Daily. He has taken workshops with David Leffel, John Encinias, and Clyde Apsevig and studied with Richard Schmid at the Loveland Academy of Fine Art.

Stephen is a full-time artist living in Taos, New Mexico. Working mainly in oils, Stephen paints various subjects from life, but the landscape is his first love. He frequently paints en plein air and uses these smaller works to create larger studio paintings. Stephen is known for the big skies in his paintings and appreciates the embers of light that send a certain glow to these partly cloudy scenes. He captures a specific moment in time and enjoys portraying how this time of day is reflected on the landscape below.

Stephen says he always felt the wonderfully unique beauty of the west but until he became an artist he really didn't know how to fully respond to that beauty.

“I paint almost exclusively from life, trying to capture the feeling and the mood of the subject before me. This work philosophy forces me to paint quickly to get a spontaneous and fresh response, because everything around us (including ourselves) is in a constant state of change."

Bronze sculpture

P. Davis was born in Neenah, Wisconsin and grew up on the outskirts of a small town in Iowa.

After graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-seventies she worked as an industrial designer for over 25 years. She developed hundreds of giftware and toy lines including “My Little Pony” for Hasbro Toys and product lines for many major companies, including Warner Bros. and Walt Disney.

In 1996 Patsy moved to Southwest Colorado and, together with her husband, began the Mad Hatter Elk Ranch near Ignacio. It is here that she spends most of her time sculpting, surrounded by nine horses, two mules, four dogs, five cats, and over two hundred elk.

Sculpting almost 100 percent from life, her work in bronze reflects many years of discipline and attention to detail. More important are the stories her sculptures tell, the sense of movement and most of all a glimpse into the hearts and minds of the animals she portrays. Patsy is a carver and her process is to subtract rather than model the form. She relies on strong planes rather than soft round forms or modeled surfaces.

For Patsy, the form must always be good design. Equally important for her is to capture the moment of life portrayed. Thirdly, there is often an allegorical thread underlying each of her sculptures.

“I believe that great design is timeless. It is certainly influenced and often inspired by the time in which it is created, but the trends do not define what is or is not good art. I am very sensitive to the difference between making art for the marketplace and simply making art.”

Bronze sculpture

Jim Eppler is an artist in the truest sense - he takes the world around us and recreates it. He has been praised for his lifelike recreations and his gentle interpretations. It is Eppler's respect and appreciation for nature that allow his art to flow so freely.

Eppler developed this appreciation for nature at a young age. Before becoming an official student of art, he unknowingly had been preparing to be an artist. As a small child growing up in El Paso, he would spend many hours outdoors, observing animals to sketch and paint. After moving to Lubbock, Texas, he took his first art class in high school. Eppler continued his official studies at Texas Tech University, earning a BFA in Studio Art. But Eppler has never limited his studies to the classroom. He has always been a keen observer of nature and has spent many hours capturing on film every aspect of nature. In his bronzes, it is the details of movement that are subtly emphasized.

As accomplished as Eppler is in wildlife art, he does not limit himself only to that realm. He is an accomplished portrait artist and skilled musician who was able to meld his gift for song and portraiture by creating commissioned portraits for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has done other commissioned pieces for MCA Records, Mercury Records, Chappell Music, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and numerous private collectors.
Eppler has studied with Bob Kuhn, Robert Wood, Bill Worrell, Raymond Froman, Charles Reid, and Paul Milosevich. He is represented in galleries from California to New York, and has been featured in the book, "Wildlife Art, 60 Contemporary Masters and Their Work" (Joan Muyskens Pursley, Portfolio Press), and in numerous magazines. His public installations include the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Frederik Meijer Gardens, South Plains Wildlife Rehab Center, National Exhibits Foundation, National Ranching Heritage Museum, Booth Museum, West Texas Museum Collection, and the Benson Sculpture Garden, along with numerous private installations.

Acrylic painting, mixed media and giclée

Carrie Fell was born in Denver, Colorado in 1962.

She studied design at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, CO before diverting into fine art in 1985. Carrie incorporated Carrie Fell Art Collections in 1999.

Today, Carrie still lives and works near Denver, Colorado where she is active in helping non-profit organizations raise funds through contributions of both her art and her time.

Carrie Fell’s art depicts the traditional icons of the Old West with a thoroughly modern twist using vibrant colors and fluid forms. This is the New West—the west as a “state of mind”—a place of change with an attitude of boldness and energy. Carrie’s West is free-spirited—her paintings and designs offer sophisticated, yet fun style that appeals to the maverick within each of us.

Fell’s self-discovered technique has continually led her to choose cowboys and cowgirls as her favorite subject, which can be seen through mixed media images on both paper and canvas. Fell’s cowboys and cowgirls are not conveyed in a traditional style, rather in vibrant colors and fluid forms. Through Carrie’s art, viewers find a unique West—a place of change with an attitude of boldness.

Wooden vessels

Patricia Fischer was born in Ogden, Utah in 1943.

She began turning wood when she was 40 years old, borrowing an old lathe from a friend. As she progressed, she and her husband Dennis created the tools and techniques to expand and refine the sculptures she envisions. The tools to turn inside a 36” sculpture are not available on the market, nor are there many people who can teach that skill.

Patricia and Dennis reside in McNairy, TN where they have a woodshop at their home.

Woodturning is a process of attaching wood to a lathe and using a hand held tool to cut the wood into a shape. The Fischer’s have evolved a new way of woodturning, using the natural cracks, knots and holes to make the sculpture more interesting and particularly delicate.

“My goal in turning is to show the natural beauty of the piece of wood I am working and still show the character of the tree it came from as it was when it was standing in the forest.”

Bronze sculpture

Veryl Goodnight was born in 1947 and raised in Denver, Colorado. Her love of horses, art and the outdoors set her career in motion from childhood. She initially painted in oils and watercolor and began sculpting in 1982.

Today she has many public monuments in Museums across the country. She is best know for "The Day the Wall Came Down", a seven ton monument to Freedom of five horses jumping over the fallen Berlin Wall. One of the "sister" monuments is located at the Allied Museum in Berlin, Germany and the other is located at the George W Bush Presidential Library at Texas A & M University.

Veryl and her husband, Roger Brooks, lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for eighteen years. They recently relocated to Mancos, Colorado where Veryl is surrounded by wildlife, domestic animals, and a rural setting in the mountains that will provide a lifetime of inspiration for both painting and sculpting.

For Veryl, working from life is mandatory, whether it is plein air painting or sculpting. Her new studio is at the north end of the barn and includes a special fenced run for models.

"The individuality of my subjects, whether human, animal or landscape is what fascinates me. This is what drives me to work directly from life as much as possible. I also believe that a strong foundation in anatomy is a key to the treasure chest of creativity. I will be a lifelong student of all forms of life."

Bronze sculpture

In 1971, Denny Haskew received his degree from the University of Utah, and then served two years in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He didn’t start sculpting until he was 38 years old. Before art came into his life, Denny spent his winters teaching cross-country skiing. He spent his summers as a white water rafting guide in the Grand Canyon and on the Salmon River in Idaho.

During a trip to visit his parents in Loveland, Colorado he fell in love with bronze. He wasted no time in getting monumental sculpture experience through working with renowned sculptors Fritz White and Kent Ullberg.

Denny Haskew currently resides in Loveland, Colorado where he is actively engaged in the art industry as a sculptor. As a member of the Potawatomi Citizen Nation, it is only natural for his artwork to follow the Native American culture.

Working in the lost wax method of bronze sculpting, Denny’s work conveys his innermost being. It is intensely personal and honest. His themes are recurring: spirit, healing, love, forgiveness, relationships, endurance, the sacredness of the human spirit, the strength in each of us and the power of all that is natural.

“You ask about my art.

Take a breath.
Think peace
As you breathe in,
Feel love as you exhale.

Take a breath
Think love
As you breathe in,
Complete forgiveness as you exhale.

This, I have learned
And now. . . So it goes with my art.”

Oil painting

Lu Haskew, the second of eight children was born within miles of her Potowatomi grandmother's tribal land in Oklahoma.

She grew up in a tiny Oklahoma town and spent 33 years teaching school, but she always painted. Her art studies began in Salt Lake City working with pastels and drawing from live models. Today she and her husband John live in Loveland, Colorado. Her son Denny is an accomplished sculptor.

Upon her retirement from teaching, Lu became a full-time artist. She has studied with great American artists: Richard Schmid, Charles Cross, Clyde Aspevig, and Joyce Pike.

Lu considers it a must to work with live models, whether people or the floral still life subjects which she has a passion to paint. She creates beautiful arrangements using material from her own garden. Her vibrant watercolors and oils are in personal and corporate collections.

“Each flower has its own individuality, it's own uniqueness. "No one petal is identical to another, I like my paintings to be realistic and honest."

Embellished giclée

Erica Hopper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, studied graphic and industrial design at San Diego State University, and continued her art education at the University of The Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

During the 70’s and 80’s she was a successful illustrator with many published works in national periodicals. Today Hopper concentrates on oil media and textile design, one influencing the other as evidenced in the rhythm and texture found in her painting.

Hopper’s paintings are compelling and abstractly interpretative. She creates delicately modulated surfaces with subtle imagery. Her color use is strong, yet positioned to create a quiet contemplation and colorful vivaciousness. While she develops figurative images with color washes and markings that are clearly defined, the edges are left open for imaginative completion.

“I illustrate my media into fragments of shape symbolizing ideas of landscape figurative and nature’s essentials”, says the artist. 
Hopper’s extensive travels have increased her admiration and respect for ethnic origin and wildlife that have become a constant in her compositions. Her consciousness and imagination come together on the canvas to tell a story.

Erika says her paintings are “metaphorical interpretations of nature and the stuff of dreams, in which the viewer can envision the complete scene as the complete scene as the imagination takes over.”


Watercolor

Pat Howard grew up in Ohio where her first art instruction was from her father, a commercial artist.

Pat received her formal education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Later, while raising her four sons, she continued her art education at the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design and the Art Institute of Colorado. She has also studied with individual artists over the years, including Burt Silverman, Kim English, Michael Atkinson, & Jan Kunz. Today she has a home studio outside of Durango where she conducts an annual watercolor workshop.

Pat is known for her bright and inviting watercolor paintings. Her natural attraction to pattern and texture is evident in her work. She was a designer and illustrator before becoming a full-time painter in the early 90's. She spends a lot of time planning a work before beginning to paint. This frees her to have fun during the painting process and to take advantage of all the benefits of working in watercolor.

Pat begins each painting with loose wet-in-wet washes and gradually builds up layers and layers of transparent glazes of color until she gets the value and intensity she wants. Darks and details are added last, and occasionally, she enhances the painting with liquid acrylic linework or watercolor pencils.

“Painting keeps my eyes and my mind open – like opening a window in a stuffy room – making me more aware of the beauty around me. And, the pursuit of a beautiful work is what keeps me painting. Making art is a soulful process for all artists – it’s in the mind, in the heart, in the love we put into what we do.”

Oil painting

Michael Lewis was born in Texas. He studied architecture and music at North Texas State University in Denton and The University of New Mexico. Additionally, he studied art and design at the Quarter School of Art and Design in Tucson, Arizona.

After working for ten years as a commercial artist to support his fine art painting and taking workshops all over the country, Michael now lives in Grants, New Mexico where he is a plein air painter.

Michael is a signature member of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and a founding member of Plein Air Painters of the West. He travels with his wife in a vintage streamline trailer to various state parks across the country where he me paints small plein air works that are then enlarged back in his studio.

Michael approaches painting like a job and believes continuous production equals more success. But he says that promotion and production are the most difficult aspects to being an artist.

“My resume is my canvas. What I studied in school is irrelevant. The paintings I’ve created in the last six month are most important. They express growth and direction.”

Fused glass

Aryana Londir grew up in rural Connecticut and felt solace in the natural environs of wooded areas, observing how things grew, changes and evolved; how brilliantly the sun shone, how lucid the colors of nature are, and how rapidly a day was able to evolve from dry to wet, grey to bright sky.

Fascinated by the inherent beauty, depth and color capabilities of glass, Aryana has chosen to utilize glass as her medium of choice. To enhance the vibrancy of the glass, Aryana often combines it with other natural materials.

Her inspirations emanate directly from her personal growth and the spirituality she embraces on a daily basis. Contrast and balance, harmony and opposition are subjects that she is intrigued by; believing that we cannot live in a world without those elements, her artwork reflects this philosophy. In viewing her work, one notices the distinction between organic and industrial, geometric and flowing shapes, as well as her vivid use of color and texture.

Porcelain

Duly was introduced to pottery when he was assigned to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, following a tour of duty in Vietnam. "I was interested in positive energy, in creating something that people would enjoy," he says. That was in 1970. Today he continues to work out of his Tucson studio experimenting with this high-fire vitreous technique that requires upwards of 2,400 degrees and twenty hours in the kiln.

You'll have to brush up on your physics and chemistry to fully understand the process by which Duly Mitchell creates his crystalline porcelain. But you only have to love classical refinement and perfection to appreciate his handsome vases and jars individualized by shimmering crystal wafers floating on translucent surfaces. These willemite crystals grow onto the surface in an unpredictable and random pattern in colors that range from champagne to adobe, aqua to cobalt blue and sea foam green.

"Many people are familiar with commercial porcelain which is glaze fired at a lower temperature to avoid distortion." Duly, however, must mature both the clay and the glaze at the same time, pushing the porcelain to its limit. Overcoming the unpredictability of the process has led Duly to develop a variety of techniques.

"There's a lot of heartache in the failures inherent in this process," he says, "but that's what drives me to keep at it."

Etching

Kim Mackey was born in 1953 and grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. He attended public schools and won a scholarship to attend the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver.

Following art school, he worked for several years as an illustrator, completing assignments for such clients as True West Magazine, Western Horseman Magazine, and Capitol Records. Special studies at Colorado State University qualified him as one of only a few certified police artists in the state.

Kim lives and works in Pueblo, Colorado. He has been an instructor at the Art Students League of Denver and has taught at the Colorado Institute of Art. He is a popular teacher, conducting workshops and classes throughout the region.

Pastel

Margaret Nes was born in France in 1950. She spent much of her childhood in Northern Africa. A daughter of a US Foreign Service couple, she was exposed to many different cultures, art forms, and landscapes, from an early age.

Nes moved to Lama Mountain, north of Taos, New Mexico, in 1969. She is a self taught artist whose work reflects the aesthetics of the stark landscape and adobe architecture of the area that has been her home for well over three decades.

Nes’s primary medium is pastel, which she uses in a unique and powerful manner. Her pastel pigments fully saturate the entire surface, and are worked and blended in with an almost sculptural quality. Her Palette ranges from the richest and most luminous of hues to the most subtle and delicate of shades. Nes’s work has been exhibited in numerous juried and invitational shows and is in collections around the world. Her work invokes a sense of beauty, mystery and wonder that is very much her own.

Bronze sculpture

Michael A. Naranjo was born in 1944, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A Tewa Indian of the Santa Clara Pueblo, his work has been greatly influenced not only by pueblo life, but also by memories of his days of hunting and fishing in the valleys and mountains of Northern New Mexico, where he has lived all his life.

A self-taught sculptor, Michael lives with his wife and two daughters in the adobe home he designed near Santa Fe. It is here he has his studio and gallery.

Michael's work is more than sculpture, for his is a story of determination, of going against the odds. In 1968, when Michael lost his sight, rather than let that destroy his childhood dream of becoming a sculptor, it had quite the opposite effect, and actually served as a catalyst that spurred him on to further explore his art and create with a new vision.

Since that time, Michael's hands have perfected the "art of seeing." His works are diverse in theme, fluid in their movement, each one telling a story all its own. The patina he chooses is dark, the way he sees them, each piece casting a shadow of imagination. Michael creates his pieces in wax or clay, as both are forgiving mediums. Working mainly in bronze, using the lost wax casting method, Michael has also begun to experiment in stone.

“Part of the joy of creating my work is sharing it with others, hoping that the viewer experiences as much pleasure in viewing it as I do in its creation. All of my pieces are totally accessible and hands on. That is the way I create them, and that is the way I like them to be experienced.”

Oil painting

Born and raised in California, Shirley feels her inner voice has called her to paint for as long as she can remember.

Her childhood passions were growing, drawing and painting flowers. She majored in art and took many workshops and classes over the years, eventually turning her attention to painting full-time under the tutelage of her mentor, Len Chmiel.

Shirley and her husband wildlife artist Ralph Oberg share their main studio overlooking the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Shirley also has her own summer studio aptly named “Poppy Cottage.”

Shirley paints in oils using a wet-on-wet technique. She paints en plein air whenever possible either in her garden or on location when she travels.

“What I try to do with paint is recreate the joy I experience in my subjects—the flowers I grow and the wildflowers in the mountain meadows.”

Ceramic

Barbara McKinney-Elston was born in Independence, Missouri and received her Indian name Pahponee or Snow Woman from the elders of her Kickapoo tribe when she turned 21. Her Native American heritage is primarily from the Kickapoo and Potawatomi Nations, originally a Great Lakes people from Wisconsin.

Pahponee lives in the rural countryside of Colorado here she works full time creating clay vessels. She is self-taught and has been working with her art since 1982.


Pahponee has always loved every form of art. A self-taught artist, she listened to the stories of her ancestors and their spirit found their way into Pahponee’s art. Her style has developed from her research and experiments with clay. “The inspiration for each vessel comes from my dreams, visions and personal life experiences. Images of my family, my teachers and animals sacred to me are often the topic for the vessels.”

Each pottery vessel she makes is designed to tell a story. To begin, she selects and mixes clay ingredients and natural minerals and pigments that best depict each story. The different mixtures result in a variety of finished looks. Each vessel is wheel thrown on a potter’s wheel and followed up with a variety of burnishing (hand polishing), carving, and incising. Her ancestors in the Great Lakes area handed down the firing method Pahponee uses.

“When I work on my pots, the world falls away,” says Pahponee. “It’s almost like being in a dream. Sometimes I even feel like I’m with the white buffalo again.”

Mixed media and acrylic

Kevin Red Star was born on the Crow reservation in Lodgrass, Montana. Kevin draws from his Crow culture for his subjects, which are historically modern.

Chosen from his reservation to study at the newly opened Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe where he studied with James McGrath. After the IAIA, Kevin applied to the San Francisco Art Institute and won a scholarship.

Then in 1967, Kevin injured his right hand, severing a tendon. He nursed the hand through therapy and music. He continued his education in fine arts at Montana State University in Bozeman and Eastern Montana College in billings.

In 1975, Kevin returned to Santa Fe where he maintained T.C. Cannon’s studio and produced art with friends Earl Bliss and Doug Hyde.

Today, Kevin lives with his three daughters in Red Lodge, Montana, a small town in the foothills of the Beartooth Mountains

His exaggeration of the anatomical features and haunting eyes captivate the observer. Among the museums holding Kevin Red Star originals in their permanent collections are: the Smithsonian Institution, Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, Denver Art Museum, the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Pierre Cardin Collection in Paris.

One can always identify "Red Star" but his growth as an artist and person never stops, much to the delight of his collectors and fans. His philosophy parallels Robert Rauschenberg's: "There should be no barriers in art."

Oil painting

Chuck Sabatino was born in the Bronx, New York in 1935 and began his art studies at the New York School of Visual Arts majoring in advertising.

Following a successful 25-year career as an art director, advertising executive, and TV producer in New York, Chuck relocated to Scottsdale Arizona and turned his focus to painting.

His love for his subject was instilled from childhood memories of time spent at New York City’s Museum of the North American Indian. He was enthralled with the artifacts he saw and imagining the life that went with them. Now Sabatino paints from his personal collection of pottery from pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona and other artifacts. 

Sabatino’s use of a warm palette of amber, gold and browns generates a sense of timelessness. He mixes his own materials and applies layers of paint in very thin oil glazes. This painstaking chiaroscuro technique coupled with an emphasis on light and shadow creates a rich luminosity and embodies a feeling of such reality that the viewer is tempted to touch each piece in the painting.

“I don’t want my work to be photo-realism. I always want people to see my hand in it,” Sabatino reflects. “But I always want it to be better.” Not so perfect that it appears to be a photo, yet with so much depth, solidity and realism that, as a collector recently told the artist, "it almost seems you could toss your car keys into the pueblo bowl."

Pastel & oil pastel

A. Dean Schneider was born in Texas and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from the University of Texas, Austin. She began her art career as a commercial portrait artist after receiving early recognition for her natural ability to draw.

The artist lives and works in Spring, Texas.

Though Dean’s experience in many media is diverse and versatile, thirty years of working in pastel have given Dean a command of the medium, and a love for creating nature and wildlife that is “alive”.

“My works celebrate the beauty of nature and God’s boundless gifts to us.”

Bronze sculpture

Michael was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico to a family of artists and designers. In 1980 he moved to California where he attended the Gemological Institute. After working in the San Francisco Bay area for ten years, Michael returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he established a custom jewelry business, eventually expanding to Aspen, Vail, and Hawaii. He continues to live and work in Santa Fe.

Michael is known for his unique elegant contemporary designs, exacting craftsmanship and the finest quality gemstones. 
In 1994 Michael started sculpting a series of small bronze animals. In these animals he has magically captured the shape and movement of the animal through a simple graceful technique. Many art enthusiasts consider these small works of art collectibles.

Acrylic and giclée

Rory Wagner was born in 1950 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

It’s not surprising that he chose Taos, N.M. as his home. Taos has long been a Mecca for those in search of life at its largest; those who refuse to compromise; and those who demand freedom in their daily existence. Soon after he arrived, Rory happened into the gallery of R.C. Gorman. R.C. became his mentor and helped get him settled into the artistic community. Rory and R.C. were life long friends.

Essentially a self-taught painter, Rory was initially drawn to the work of the Dutch master of portraiture Vermeer. One of his favorite early subjects is the American cowboy, an icon of don’t-fence-me-in heroism.

Wagner is uncompromising in his work. If he is not satisfied with a painting he has been known to destroy it and start anew. Of the six to twelve canvases that annually pass under his intense scrutiny, each glow with a passionate presence. He builds his own stretchers and stretches each canvas himself. Each painting begins with the application of titanium white over multiple layers of sanded gesso. Then the subject is sketched in and the painting begins.

Rory blends the complex skin-tones by rubbing pigment onto the ground. (Wagner often jokes that he rubs instead of painting.) To achieve the authenticity of beadwork and feathering Wagner often uses small double aught brushes. "It takes me hours and hours, day upon day, to complete every one of them," Rory says.

Wagner is meticulous; he researches the smallest details of the subjects he paints and continues to be fascinated by the commonalities of tribes located thousands of miles apart, while living in different regions of the world.

Oil painting

Tal Walton was born in Salt Lake City in 1965. At age 18, Tal traveled to Mexico to do mission work as a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This service marks the passage into adulthood. For Tal, it also profoundly influenced his development as an artist.

Walton studied painting and sculpture at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fine Art. His professor who taught that a good painting is laid out according to logical symmetry influenced Walton.

Tal currently lives and works in Fort Collins, Colorado where he finds balance between painting and activities with his family.

His work encompasses the use of three part divisions, a component that relates to his religious beliefs. The three divisions found in Walton’s painting symbolize our before life, present life, and after life. 

The center section of each painting represents the current reality of our lives and is symbolized by relatively strong, clear colors. By contrast, the colors in the adjoining sections are darker and more muted. The horizon line and the position of the elements are intended to give the painting an ethereal quality.

“My hope is that the serenity of my painting will draw the viewer in, and the complexity of the work will inspire lingering contemplation. I strive not to imitate actual places but to recreate the universal idea of landscape and time.”

Bronze sculpture

Star grew up in rural Maryland, the daughter of a ballerina and a woodworker. In high school she was winning scholastic awards for her miniature sculptures cast in gold and silver. She studied at the University of Maryland, the Institute of Art in Baltimore, and the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington D.C. After teaching lost wax casting and metal design at Prince George’s Community College, Star decided to focus on a career in sculpture

In 1985, Star moved to New Mexico, where she currently lives with her husband and their menagerie of animals. 
A prominent sculptor, Star was chosen as one of the 30 most influential artists by Southwest Art Magazine.

Star’s work reflects her discoveries of cultural diversity and history, as well as connections of indigenous wildlife to myth and the mysteries of ancient sacred sites. She believes there is much to be learned from people who live a simple life close to the land and Star sensitively captures their enduring cultural identity, whether indigenous or ranch life. She vividly celebrates their character by preserving her observations in the permanent medium of bronze, using the lost-wax method.

This process of creating expressive personalities, which have convincing inner life, is the most satisfying aspect of Star’s work for both her and the viewer. Her bronzes whether animal or human subject matter, exude a captivating presence. Though she may choose an idea because of a striking Navajo dress and jewelry, it is the act of sculpting that reveals what she has truly responded to in the image. . . the gentle humanity expressed in a subtle gesture or an emotional state of mind caught in a brief moment in time.

“When character emerges from a work I am sculpting, I feel touched at a deeply intimate, subconscious level. It is this essence in a work of art that makes it intensely personal, and entirely universal at the same time.”