Artists In Attendance

Master Signature Members Exhibiting and Attending:

Nancy Seamons Crookston
Nancy Seamons Crookston's love of people and life is the essence of her work. She paints diverse subjects-a boy and his sailboat, a mother looking at her child, an old man sitting on a park bench, a young girl walking her horse-each beautifully portrayed using her masterful color and lighting techiniques. Schooled by Russian Master Sergei Bongart, she learned the importence of color harmony. Art to nanacy should " excite the soul and leave a sense of peace". Her studio rests in the grand Rocky Mountains of Northern Utah.

Albert Handell
Albert Handell is a well-known Santa Fe artist, teacher, and writer. His exquisite pastels and oils reflect a thorough knowledge of the light, color, and composition of our New Mexico landscapes as well as the wilderness of upstate New York. Other works reveal a deep feeling for the people and rhythms south of the border. Albert has been with Ventana for the past sixteen years. His latest book of five, "Painting the Landscape in Pastel", was published in November of 2000.

William Scott Jennings
William Scott Jennings has been a professional artist since 1973. He began his career in commercial art, working in Dallas, Nashville and Sacramento. Mr. Jennings' gallery exposure began in Dallas in 1976, and by 1978 he was showing his work in Santa Fe and Scottsdale. After residing in Taos, New Mexico for 15 years, Scott relocated to Sedona, Arizona in January 1996. His paintings are in corporate and private collections around the world, including the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC and the Ford Motor Company.

Jennings is a Master Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA) and a Signature Member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA). Feature articles about Jennings' work have appeared in American Artist Magazine, Art of the West Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, Focus Magazine and Art Business News.

Notable collectors include Ford Motor Company, Christopher Forbes, William Shatner, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Congressman David Dreier and the Haggin Museum.

Steven Lang
As a young boy, Steven Lang fell in love with a book of paintings of the Old West by Frederic Remington. He knew then that he would strive to someday create and contribute artistically to the world of fine western art. To this day, the book is one of his most prized possessions and Remington remains his most influential inspiration.

Being of Pawnee and Cherokee descent, the Native American Indian is his favorite subject. His participation in living history reenactments provide him with a firsthand visual reservoir of ideas, authenticity and ethnic truths. " I firmly believe that having an experiential knowledge of Plains Indian culture and the landscape that they inhabited, has enabled me to create images on canvas that truly reflect the sometimes tragic, but more often the glorious legacy of our American West".

In Southwest Art Magazine April 2000, Lang was featured as " The Story Teller", filling his canvas with spellbinding tales of the Old West and captivating his audience with story lines that give accurate description of historical facts to his paintings.

The March/ April 2002 issue of Art of the West Magazine, entitled an article on Lang as "Visual Memories", detailing his hands- on experience at such period reenactments as "Buffalo Days/ Indian Fight".

In a few short years, his name has become synonymous with fine western art. He has established himself with realistic oil originals and is sought out by collectors here and abroad.

Kevin MacPherson
Kevin excels in his ability to paint all subject matter: landscape, still life, and figurative works. Using spontaneous brushwork and candid color, Kevin's work reveals his interpretive and creative virtuosity. He easily manipulates the elements of an artist's "visual toolbox" to capture the mood of his subject, whether it be the dramatic light of southern France, the rugged beauty of the California coast, or the brilliance of dappled light through a floral still life. Kevin's work has been featured in many national magazines, Art of the West, Art Talk, U. S. Art, Wildlife Art and gracing the covers of Southwest Art, American Artist, International Artist, and The Artist's Magazine. Contibuting editor to Southwest Art Magazine, author of "The Artist's Voice, 2000". In addition to numerous gallery exhibitions, he has shown at the Gilcrease Museum, the Arizona State Capital and the Albuquerque Museum.

Kevin now makes his home in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico, merging his influences from years in Arizona with his childhood memories of New Jersey. Bitten with wanderlust, Kevin and his wife Wanda can be seen anywhere in the world painting en plein air.

Neil Patterson
Neil Patterson's dream to become an oil painter was born in an elementary school, where his fascination for a reproduction of a painting by the Group of Seven forerunner, Tom Thomson, sparked his desire to paint. At the age of twelve he visited the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, and decided he would one day be an oil painter. On his thirteenth birthday he received his first oil paints. After stealing one of his father's canvas combine belts he created his first masterpiece. Neil began his formal training as an artist at the University of Calgary and the Scottsdale Artists' School.

In 1992, Neil's work was featured in the Premier National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, Oil Painters of America (OPA) at Prince Galleries, Chicago. In 1995, Neil was the first Canadian to become a signature member in the OPA. In March 2000 he was awarded the status of Master Signature Member, becoming the 34th painter in this elite group. Neil now sits on the board of directors of the OPA. He has juried both regional and national shows for the OPA and has served as OPA juror of awards in Springville, Utah.

In 1993, Neil was elected to the prestigious group of intellectuals and artists known as the Salmagundi Club of New York (1871). He has numerous awards to his credit, and has been published in many books, newspapers and monthly periodicals. Neil's work has been exhibited in galleries across North America, in seven provinces and seventeen states.

Neil's painting Spring Thaw was awarded second place at the Oil Painters of America eastern regional exhibition (Richmond, Virginia) by Everett Raymond Kinstler in September 2002.

Neil believes colour is the essence of painting. He uses an impressionistic Alla Prima style of painting to convey his ideas through landscapes and florals in both Plein Air and studio painting.

Joyce Pike
Joyce Pike is a sixth generation native Californian who is listed in just about every major art publication and directory. After teaching throughout the world, she is listed in Who's Who in American Art; World's Who's Who of Women; the National Biographic Society, and is a signature member of the Oil Painters of America. and the Women Artists of the American West.

After studying with Sergei Bongart, Hal Reed and Viona Ann Kendall, she taught at Los Angeles Valley College for seventeen years, and has given workshops in Europe, Mexico and throughout the United States. She has three books in print, "Painting Floral Still Life"; "Oil Painting-A Direct Approach", and "Painting Flowers" which has also been printed in China and France. They are all published by North Light Books. She has also made some 45 one-hour video tapes on painting by Art Video Productions. She has been featured in Art of the West magazine, International Artist Magazine, The Artist Magazine and Fine Arts Collector.

Her major awards include the American Artist Grand National Award for Floral Art. She has had numerous shows of her own in galleries in Palm Springs, Scottsdale, Laguna Beach, Beverly Hills, Carmel, and New York She resides along the Central Coast of California which is one of her principal sources of subject matter for her combinations of realism and impressionism.

Joan Potter
For the still life painter, the studio is a haven of creativity. Shelves and tables are filled with objets d'art and flea market bric-a-brac. In Joan Potter's light-drenched studio on upper Canyon Road, favorite treasures - porcelain vases, oriental screens, and antique copperware - all find their way to canvas.

Having moved to Santa Fe from New York in the mid '80s, Potter transformed a small adobe house - one of three constructed by Gerald Cassidy in the 1920s - into a comfortable residence and studio. The open living space is ideal for entertaining friends and fellow artists. Here, she is surrounded by traditional New Mexico architecture, antique furniture, and her personal art collection. Hung salon style, there are paintings by early Taos and Santa Fe painters, works by contemporaries and her son's bronze sculpture.

At the other end of the house, Potter created a vaulted atelier that is bathed in warm, north light. Her studio - adjacent to the road once traveled by Indians and burros - is an artist's dream. Surveying her space, Potter is reminded of what she loves most about her adopted New Mexico home - the sun, the warmth and the weather!

Craig Tennant
Craig Tennant, OPA (b. 1946) grew up in New Jersey and began his early art training in 1967 with Grey Advertising in New York. Starting in the mat room he quickly moved to mechanicals, then was made the Assistant Art Director for the Kool Aid account.

In 1970, he joined the staff of illustrators at BBD&O working on major accounts including Campbell's Soup and Dodge Chrysler for national television ads. His magazine ad accounts consisted of Tarreyton, GE, Shaffer, and Pepsi (Generation).

For the next twenty years, Tennant illustrated on a freelance basis for clients including TV Guide, Mechanics Illustrated, Sports Illustrated, Yearly Reports, Field & Stream, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, Old Milwaukee, and IBM. He was elected a member of the New York Society of Illustrators in 1980 and received their silver medal award in 1981.

In 1989, Tennant moved to Colorado to focus on western oil paintings. He started his own publishing business in 1994, Cheyenne Press, to promote his work. The same year, he was voted 21st in the nation's top print artists (by a U.S. Art Magazine survey of over 850 galleries nationwide.) In 1996 Tennant was commissioned by the Park Meadows Shopping Resort to paint a Colorado scene for the Nordstrom entrance.

He received juror's recognition at the Artists in Colorado Exhibition, Denver 1997 and was a finalist in the Arts for the Parks competition in six out of the last seven years. Tennant was voted a signature member of the Oil Painters of America, and in September 1999 was honored with their "Best of Show" award for the West/Southwest Regional Juried Show (open to 14 states). He received the Fredericksburg Award at the 2000 OPA National Juried Show, and the Neil Patterson Award at the 2001 OPA National Show. He was voted a Master Signature Member in January 2002.

His work has appeared on the covers of Western Lifestyles, Wild West, The Equine Image, Rocky Mountain Rider, Colorado Country Life, Muzzleloader and Beef magazines. He has been the subject of additional feature articles in Western Horseman, Art of the West, Western Lifestyles Southwest Art and American Cowboy.

Tennant was honored, two consecutive years, with the People's Choice Award at the 2000 and 2001 Stampede Western Invitational Art Exhibit & Sale. He also received the People's Choice Award at the 2001 and 2002 Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale.

Zhewei Tu
Mr. Tu was born in Northern Guangdong Province of China in 1951, the son of peasant parents. As a young artist he received considerable regional fame from his artistic exposure, soon other artists, teachers and museums directors traveled from great distances to see his work and watch him paint. In 1972 Tu was invited to study at China's famous Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts. After many hard-working years, Tu's paintings were welcomes with open arms by the public. He became a member of Guangdong Artists Association and of Guangdong Oil Painters Association. In 1981 Tu was promoted to professorship of fine arts at Guangzhou Institute. " Tu's work is uniquely his own. He finds a special way, which belongs only to him. He flies freely with full wings in the blue sky of art. Tu's paintings are simple in character. No cleverness, fashionable tricks, nor superficiality appear in his work, he has opened up a special feeling in art which belongs only to him" In 1987 Tu came to the United States to enter Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, to further his education and career. He had applied to four other universities and had been offered three-year scholarships at each. He has won numerous National and International awards including the coveted prize of the Oil Painters of America Best of Show. Mr. Tu's own words " I have been given a gift by some power, and I am deeply thankful for it. With this gift I am able to put on canvas my passion and vision, to create these paintings. When very young, I used to look at my hands in wonderment and try to understand how beauty could come forth from them. I still have that feeling today every time I put a brush to a canvas. Sharing his life are his wife Danni and son Danlang, both of whom joined him in America in July 1988.

Master Signature Members Exhibiting [but not attending]:

Peter Adams

Neil Boyle

Dan Gerhartz

Daniel Greene

Quang Ho

Ramon Kelly

David Leffel

Huihan Liu

Sherrie McGraw

Paul Mullalie

C.W. Mundy

Burton Silverman

Marylin Simandle

Mian Situ

Zhang Wen Xin

Signature Members Expected to attend include:

Kurt Anderson
[Figure/Still Life]

“When I paint a still life, I want it to be anything but still. I want it to shimmer with light. I want it to rustle with movement. I want it to feel almost palpable.”

Known mainly for his floral still life and floral figurative paintings, Kurt Anderson has been a long student of both classical and impressionistic painting techniques. Trained in the Boston School tradition, he is part of master/pupil lineage that can be traced back to 19th century masters such as Jacques Louis David. His writing and artwork have been widely published. His articles appear regularly in The Artist's Magazine and he is author of Realistic Oil Painting Techniques (North Light Books, 1995).

Anderson began his career mainly as a painter of official portraits depicting corporate CEO’s and university presidents. In recent years his emphasis has changed to florals which he sells in galleries across the country. He is especially attracted to flowers as a subject because they allow the richest expression of color and the liveliest use of brushwork. “Achieving vibrant color is the most important element in my work,” Anderson says. He also likes dynamic alla prima (literally "all at once") brushwork, which provides a look of spontaneity. “I want the viewer to see the process of painting in the finished work itself.”

J. Chris Morel
J. Chris Morel is a landscape painter from the Taos NM area. A majority of Morel's paintings are painted on location throughout Northern New Mexico, the West and many other locations around the country and abroad.

A Plein Air Tucson 1998 Award Winner, Morel most recently was invited to participate in the "Coors National Western Art Exhibit" in Denver and exhibited at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. He received the "Region II Award" in the "2001 Art for the Parks" National Competition.

He was featured in the March 2002 issue of "Southwest Art Magazine" as "Artist to Watch" and was also featured in "International Artist Magazine" Dec/Jan 2002.
June of 2002 he received the "Best of Show, Artists Choice" at the "Masters in Montana" show and sale at Chaparral Gallery in Bozeman, MT.

Chosen as "Best Dad in the House 2002" by his wife and kids.

Morel's paintings can be seen at Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena, CA and Morel Studio in Taos NM. For more information call Morel Studios at 505 751 3362 or Galerie Gabrie at 626 577 1223

Romel De Latorre
A consummate artist in all media, Romel de la Torre is one of today's most highly regarded young artists. His landscapes, figures, portraits, and still life paintings display unparalleled technical skill, fluid style and thorough understanding of light and form.

Richard Alan Nichols
Acutely aware of the delicate hues created by light, he strives to render, "a visual poem" with each painting. Philosophical about his work "Art is the representation of that which the mind can imagine - but only the heart knows to be true."

Associate Members Expected to attend include:

Clayton Beck III
Clayton Beck is an artist whose career now spans three decades. His work ranges in traditional painting mediums from oil, pastel and watercolor to those considered as drawing mediums such as contò and charcoal. His subject matter is as diverse as figurative nudes, still-lives, landscapes and portraits. Clayton's love and mastery of the subject in which he is working is unquestioned. "My work is an affirmation of life. The fact that I am here and aware of that is cause enough to celebrate. My inspiration is the world around me and my canvas is whatever I have at hand when I am inspired."

Don Ward
[Plein Air]
Don Ward was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1947. He graduated with an Honors B.F.A. degree from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California, in 1973. Until 1985, Don worked as a freelance illustrator and in the field of Outdoor Pictorial Advertising. He then moved to Taos, New Mexico, to pursue a career in fine art. Since 1987, he has been conducting the Taos Sketch Group, artists that meet three times a week to draw and paint from live models. In addition, he has been teaching oil painting classes twice a week. He has been invited to participate in the "Taos Impressionists" show and was represented in the "Taos Invites Taos" exhibitions from 1991 to 1996.

"My early influences were the Old Masters, such as Velazquez, Titian and Tintoretto. Then, after I'd painted a few years, the color and brushwork of the Impressionists became important to my work." Russian painter Nicolai Fechin also heavily inspired Ward. In the early 1970's, a group formed in Taos that shared a passion for painting plein-aired landscapes, thus becoming known as the "Taos Six". On the advice of artist Ray Vinella, a member of the "Taos Six", Ward developed his painting and drawing skills at the Art Center in Los Angeles under Lorser Feitelsen.

Don Ward is a quintessential Taos artist. His landscapes, still life's, and figure paintings render a dignity of person, place and thing, recording a deep attachment to life in the Southwest. His "living" color and virtuosity in drafting link him to such Taos Masters as Walter Ufer, Kenneth Adams and Victor Higgins.

"I like to think of my work not so much as pictures of places or things, but records of having been there. And I try to make my paintings give the viewer a sense of that experience".