Maura studied Classical Studies (Latin) at Stanford and learned how literature, politics, religion, science, sports and more interplay within a single culture. She quickly realized the same holds true in the American West.

The way story and cinema, song and symbol, landscape and legends combine and contribute to our real and imagined view of the West is her focus. Native Americans, Lewis and Clark, Remington, Russell and dime store magazines were our first Western storytellers and shaped our views. Song, photography and film soon added to the mix — and mythology. Real issues — water, land and livestock, rodeo and ranching, traditions, family and the environment — play out every day in America’s West. How the real and imagined collide and coincide is the center of her work.

Maura starts each piece on location, looking directly into the sun. Ranches, rodeos, and vintage Main Street are her stage. With details obscured, she looks for strong, iconic silhouettes. In her studio, working on wood panel, glass and steel, she combines “Old West” elements like vintage wall paper designs, typography and other symbols with those modern day Western moments resulting in a confluence of old and new, historic and modern.

www.mauraallen.com »

Joyce has had 25 fruitful years of painting since she graduated from the Fine Arts program at the University of Denver. Joyce’s work has been displayed at many of the top galleries in Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, and Texas. She has had many one-woman shows, group shows, and invitational shows throughout the country. And, many collectors of her work return again and again to savor pieces from new painting series.

Working with personal symbolism, Joyce’s gift for layering color onto the canvas always delights the eye and intrigues the mind. It is perhaps a reflection of the layers of her life that she brings forth into her paintings. Growing up in Texas, Joyce was ever observant of the references and relationships, the environment, and experiences around her. These “moments of perfection,” as she refers to them, found expression on the canvas not by technique and training, but by a stubborn attempt to leave training and common intellect behind. Her desire to find a solution through art is evident in her work, some of it possibly haunting, and some of it full of joy – all expressed through color and light.

www.joycecoco.com »

1932-2017

Clyde was a veteran of the US Army and worked as a technical designer in the Aerospace industry before leaving to follow his passion of sculpting in 1969. He was renowned for his cowboy-style bronze sculptures, has been featured for his work nationally, and created the "Double Jack" statue located in Santa Rita Park in his home town of Durango, Colorado.

Growing up on the plains in Southwest Kansas, Beth learned to look for beauty in unexpected places.  This habit has led her down roads less traveled around the world and in her approach to painting. She is particularly drawn to painting lush foliage, water and reflections (none of which she had on the farm!) from a non traditional view point. There is something so compelling in the shapes and colors provided by nature.  In isolating these items from their surroundings Beth hopes to entice the viewer to slow down, take a second look and enjoy what they might otherwise have missed. Beth is currently exploring painting water on a much larger multi-panel scale.  

www.ellerart.com »

Ken Elliott is a Colorado artist working in a variety of media: oils, pastels, monotypes, monoprints, etchings and collage. His works are in numerous private and corporate collections in the US and throughout the world. Some of his landscape paintings and pastels are reproduced as dramatic, limited edition giclee prints and posters.

"Ken Elliott is an talented artist, and friend that I have worked with for many years. Consistent as a reliable source of beautiful, one of a kind, giclees and originals, his work is colorful and distinct. Ken's transitional style is easy for everyone to enjoy and his masterful use of color creates an amazing energy that emits from his work sending out a pleasing and tranquil feeling."

— Susan Kendrick, The Art Collaborative, Atlanta

www.kenelliott.com »

Melanie paints in two styles. One is expressionistic landscapes, or abstracted landscapes and the other is non objective. She loves toggling between the two. The landscapes are simple and pure with attention to an overall impression rather than detail.

The nonobjective style is completely different. There is no object in the painting that is recognizable. It is completely freeing and uninhibited, a beautiful combination of simple and complex.

I paint because that’s my form of expression, an introspective conversation with myself. It’s a very personal conflict resolution, where I create chaos and problems and then set forth to resolve them. Painting becomes a means whereby I am completely engaged, exhilarated, frustrated and rewarded. 

— Melanie Grein

www.melaniegrein.com »

Jeff Koehn is one of a few young artists that have captured the interest of gallery owners and art lovers across the country in the past two years. Born in a small Wisconsin town, his first grade teacher was prescient when she told him he would be a famous artist someday.

Jeff received his formal art education from the Art Institute of Colorado, where he graduated with honors in December of 1995. While at the Art Institute, he received extensive training in pastel, oil, and acrylic painting from world-renowned artists Doug Dawson, Lynn Kircher and Dong Long. In addition, in 1995 he was awarded 1st Place in the National Creative ‘Geanie’ Student Competition.

Jeff’s style has evolved from early emphasis on photo-realism with the use of pastels in portraits. His earlier illustrative work has appeared in numerous publications. As he shifted to oil and acrylics, he has become absorbed with the excitement of color and texture, refining his paintings with dry brush techniques that lend both complexity and subtlety to his distinctive style. His influences come from Vermeer’s use of light spilling across his paintings, and also from John Singer Sargent’s lush portraits. Jeff’s immediate and enthusiastic reception in the gallery community is undoubtedly an indication of an artist on the rise.

Michael Lynch was born in Denver, Colorado in 1950. He showed an interest in the arts at an early age and, through a move to Chicago in the mid 1960’s, was able to experience the great variety of work at the Chicago Art Institute. He was particularly taken by the work of the American impressionists and began a serious study of traditional painting.

After receiving his college degree in 1972, Lynch moved to Washington, D.C. where he lived for three years, traveled extensively both throughout the U.S. and abroad, and spent countless days in museums, galleries, and artist’s studios. Returning to Colorado in 1976, Lynch became aquainted with a group of serious painters and sculptors who were living in the area at that time , built his first studio, and launched his full time painting career.

Lynch paints nearly all of his smaller pieces from life and prefers to use these as reference [rather than photographs] for his large studio paintings. He has taught countless outdoor painting classes in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California and has lectured extensively on the practice of Plein Air painting.

Michael J. LynchLynch’s subject matter includes portraits, figures, still life, and cityscape as well as landscape and marine. He has painted throughout the southwest, west coast, Nantucket, and Mexico. He has also worked in Italy and the Netherlands , and has spent a great deal of time in the British Isles where he was made a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London in 1982.

Michael J. LynchHis work can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. A number of his pieces were also acquired by the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands for his residence in the Hague.

Michael J. LynchLynch has designed and built a number of art studios and has been a design consultant on several architectural and remodel projects. He has also designed and handcrafted fine quality picture frames in 22k gold and in hardwood and veneer .

Lynch’s paintings are available through a limited number of fine galleries.

www.michaeljlynchstudio.com »

Maggie and her husband John Muchmore met in the Art Department at Carnegie Mellon University in 1965 and by 1967 were living in a remote mountain village of Northern New Mexico. In 1970, they moved to Santa Fe where they both have painted, raised children and now have grandchildren.

Since the 1970's, Maggie has had regular one woman shows of her pastel landscapes at galleries in Santa Fe, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles. She has made a living as an artist, taught young girls through the O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and continues to pursue her visual imagery of aging, the feminine, the unseen world, and whatever snags her imagination.

Several years ago, while visiting her favorite paintings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, she noticed the colors looked less vibrant than she remembered. Returning to New Mexico, she stopped painting landscapes and began a series on aging, doing self portraits using black charcoal. Cataract surgery eventually corrected her color perception and she is now re-exploring the colors of the New Mexico landscape.

Maggie's latest interest is in the visual aspects of opera and she has volunteered each summer in the Santa Fe Opera's costume shop. She is also writing and illustrating her own opera about the feminine journey as opposed to the hero's quest.

www.maggiemuchmore.com »

Blending modern insight with old world training, Anita freely moves through centuries to complete a finished painting. Her exceptional sense of color and knack for composition apparent. For Anita, contemporary art is an interpretation of the moment, captured directly thru color with exuberant strokes across the canvas.

Anita trained for three years in the Russian school of painting with Don Sahli who was the last protege of Sergei Bongart, who taught in the tradition of the Russian Impressionists. Anita also studied at the Art Student League of Denver with Jay Moore and Kim Mackey. Originally from Kansas City, Anita first studied art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum when she was six years old. Anita accumulated her extensive knowledge of the arts initially thru watching her mother in her own art studio. Anita has paintings in her personal art collection from her maternal grandmother was also an accomplished artist.

Anita paints in her Denver, CO studio-gallery and her work has been featured in articles numerous times in Southwest Art magazine including  “Artist to Watch” in 2001 and in American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, Art of the West and Vail Art Magazine. 

She is a founding signature member of Plein Air Artists Colorado and a signature member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society and the Outdoor Painters Society. 

www.anitamosher.com »

Originally from Arizona, Amy is a native of the West. She was raised in a family that valued art, music, and books, taking to art at an early age.

Amy had an unconventional childhood. She and her siblings spent a year travelling the West while being home schooled by their mother, an English and Humanities teacher. They spent a lot of time outdoors. In high school she lived off the grid, where she developed an affinity for wildlife and wild places. She worked as a hotshot on a fire crew, and as a fire lookout.

Amy earned a degree in Art from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. She worked in different areas of the visual arts before becoming a full time artist.

She now lives and works in Denver. In addition to painting she kayaks, mountain bikes, and plays the bass guitar. She still spends a lot of time outdoors.

www.amywinterfineart.com »