How would you describe your style? “Formal expressionism” best describes my style. Their forms and faces inspire me, and those eyes-they touch my heart. What are your favorite subjects to depict? Since childhood, I’ve been deeply connected with animals. Where do you live and work? Our home is in rural Santa Rosa Valley, CA. Peggy Ludington, Everything the Light Touches, oil, 16 x 12. What galleries represent your work? Spa Fine Art, Saratoga Springs, NY Mary Williams Fine Arts, Boulder, CO Bozzuto Greene Art, Lutherville, MD Haven Palm Beach, Palm Beach, FL PEGGY LUDINGTON When you’re not creating art, what else do you enjoy doing? I’m an avid tennis player, and I love spending time with my dog Gus, practicing yoga, reading, and traveling. What is your proudest art accomplishment? Having my work chosen for the cover of the program of the Winter Equestrian Festival in 2020.
I finally committed to painting full time in 2011. I took some workshops in my 20s and early 30s. In college, though, my first and only painting class was terrible, so I ended up being a photography major. Where did you study art? I went to a high school that had a really strong art program, and that is where I took my first painting class. How would you describe your style? I go from loosely realistic to more abstract and expressive. I had a client commission a painting of an elephant last year, and that inspired me to go back through photos from a trip to Kenya and Tanzania, which resulted in a whole collection of zebra paintings. What are your favorite subjects to depict? I grew up on a farm riding horses, and we had a menagerie of cats and dogs as well, so these are some of my favorite subjects. Now I live in Wellington, FL, and work in West Palm Beach. Where do you live and work? I grew up in Michigan and spent 20 years in Colorado. What galleries represent your work? Carriage House Gallery, Boerne, TX The Gallery at Brookwood, Brookshire, TX WEATHERLY STROH When you’re not creating art, what else do you enjoy doing? I love reading, walking, taking photos, and playing with my cats. What is your proudest art accomplishment? All of the award-winning paintings I’ve done of my children. But most of what I do now has been learned through workshops with prominent pastelists and through lots and lots of painting.
Where did you study art? I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Dayton in Ohio and later attended the Coppini Academy of Fine Art in San Antonio. I’m also highly influenced by Impressionism, but occasionally my work still reverts back toward the tight photo-realism of my younger years. How would you describe your style? I sometimes call it contemporary realism, which is a rather broad category. What are your favorite subjects to depict? I love painting animals, but for me, it’s not really the animals that I’m painting, it’s the light. Where do you live and work? I live in the south-central Texas Hill Country between San Antonio and Austin.
Rita Kirkman, Hay! It’s What’s for Lunch, pastel, 36 x 36.