Posts by Joe Tougas

Amazing Life, Amazing Art

Amazing Life, Amazing Art

October 8, 2026 | by

From Medical Student to Wildlife Artist: Valerie Gobeil’s Unlikely Journey   There are a few key moments that led to wildlife oil painter Valerie Gobeil’s promising career. One of them left her with neck and back injuries and a concussion after a distracted driver T-boned her car. The collision occurred 13 years ago, during Gobeil’s first year of medical school in Arizona, forcing her to take some time off. “I would read one paragraph, and I’d have to re-read it five, six, seven times to try to retain some of it,” she says. “When I was studying basically the equivalent
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Excellence and Beauty

Excellence and Beauty

August 6, 2026 | by

How Atelier Training Helped Jonathan Noon Transform a Passion for Drawing into a Fine Art Career   Named after the French word for studio, atelier schools are where students immerse themselves in an intensive series of training in realism. For months on end, they draw and paint repeatedly, often the same subject—usually still lifes or human models—with a focus on detail. Along with most of the world, Jonathan Noon had some time on his hands during the pandemic, so he decided to seriously explore his interest in drawing and painting. Up to that point in his life, he had set
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Wildlife With a Twist

Wildlife With a Twist

June 9, 2026 | by

How Lisa Gleim Transitioned from Portraiture to Wildlife Art Inspired by Montana’s Wilderness   About 10 years ago, after painting portraits for more than 20 years, Georgia-based artist Lisa Gleim needed a change. She found what she wanted when she and her oncologist husband Bill Jonas bought a vacation home in Big Sky, Montana. While there, she spent days photographing bears at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, a sanctuary for bears and wolves that for various reasons wouldn’t survive in the wild, and taking in the mountain scenery. That visit made a profound impression on her and kickstarted a
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The Studio of Heather Burton & Dave Santillanes

The Studio of Heather Burton & Dave Santillanes

April 8, 2026 | by

Colorado Artists Dave Santillanes and Heather Burton Find Inspiration in Their Dream Studio Near Pikes Peak   Since meeting in Maui in 2014, artists Dave Santillanes and Heather Burton have been side by side in many ways: dating, marriage, parenting, and living as full-time artists in Colorado. Since September 2025, when they moved from Wellington, Colorado, to Colorado Springs, they have also been side by side when painting in their spacious studio on the main level of their home on the northern part of town near Black Forest. The main-level studio is the first room a visitor sees, and once
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He’s Still On the Bus

He’s Still On the Bus

February 4, 2026 | by

Award-Winning Sculptor Jason Scull Creates Authentic Western Art Rooted in Tradition and Movement   For almost 40 years, Jason Scull has been creating sculptures that are alive with action and emotion. In the spirit of the cowboy ethos he emulates in his art, he takes an organic approach to his realistic award-winning work, eschewing, for instance, working from photographs. “If you’re sculpting a running horse, you aren’t going to find a photograph that’s going to give you a 360-degree view of the animal in one position,” he says. “You have to be able to know how to construct these things
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Quiet Majesty

Quiet Majesty

December 8, 2025 | by

  Mark Boedges’ oil paintings are filled with a focused light, both subtle and brilliant, that captures the quiet majesty of the American West and the complexity of its varied landscape. His paintings weren’t always this way, however, and his path to clarity, both in his subject and in his life, was full of twists and turns. A St. Louis, Missouri, native, Boedges says that St. Louis wasn’t a hotbed of artistic activity, but its museums provided enough inspiration through works by Monet and other landscape painters to make an impression on him. “The Impressionists were the first big influence
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The Studio of Josh Clare

The Studio of Josh Clare

October 8, 2025 | by

  Light plays a major role in the art and life of Josh Clare. The big-picture light is his strong Christian faith. Light is also the element he knew he wanted to harness and infuse throughout the 4,000-square foot studio he built near his Utah home in 2018.  The three-level structure has six 4-by-4-foot skylights above his painting area, and the way the lights works—illumination without direct sunlight—is the studio’s strongest asset. “It’s a beautiful, pleasing light to paint under,” Clare says. A Utah native who studied art, he met Cambree, a horticulture major, on the Brigham Young-Idaho campus. The
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The Beauty of Birds

The Beauty of Birds

August 7, 2025 | by

  As long as there are birds in the skies, Bill Rice will sculpt them. That’s essentially the work ethic, the focus, and the passion with which he has been operating for more than 40 years as an artist who specializes in avian wood carvings. The winner of several awards, including the 2024 People’s Choice Award at the Adirondack Experience Museum in Blue Mountain, New York, Rice’s home is in an area of Connecticut where he can walk outside and see different types of birds every day. Summer walks with his wife, photographer Brooke Rice, present endless subject matter. “This
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Art and Conservation

Art and Conservation

June 5, 2025 | by

For 20 years, Anne Peyton was immersed in professional car racing. She had a fast and furious career shooting photos and painting race cars for several automotive magazines, ultimately working for several hot rod publications as photographer, painter, and art director while living in California. Working for publications that included Motor Trend and Road & Track, Peyton’s artwork was considered top-tier in the racing industry, praised by the likes of Automobile magazine as one of the best racing painters in the nation. That was all before the year 2000, which is when her art changed—drastically. Read the full article in
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A Moment of Movement

A Moment of Movement

April 7, 2025 | by

For three summers in the 1980s, Ott Jones worked as a fishing guide at the Rainbow King Lodge in Lake Iliamna on the Alaskan Peninsula. He led fishing excursions during the days and worked on his art at night. “If I was stationed at the lodge I’d sculpt at the lodge; if I was living in the bush I’d sculpt at camp by candlelight,” he says. It was one of the last jobs he had before becoming a full-time artist. During those three years, Jones lived in Castle Rock, Colorado, where he was under the artistic mentorship of accomplished Colorado
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