Archives for 2025 March-April Issue

Watercolor Illusionist

Watercolor Illusionist

February 7, 2025 | by

Richie Vios grew up in a house in Cebu City in the Philippines that was filled with the smell of oil paints, thanks to his father and siblings, who were all painters. “The smell of oil paint was always present in my home,” he says. “That was my childhood smell.” With all that oil painting going on, it’s a little surprising that Vios’ medium today is watercolor. Yes, he says, he did paint with oils with his father when he was in high school, but didn’t plan to become an artist. Instead, he earned a degree in architecture in the
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Pushing Boundaries

Pushing Boundaries

February 7, 2025 | by

For Nebraska native Todd A. Williams, capturing beauty and rendering it in ways that excite viewers on multiple levels is his greatest love. His distinctive way of texturing paint and his paint quality and manipulation allow viewers to take in the entire design and the overall harmony of the visual layout whether they’re up close, studying details, or standing at a distance. “I love it when I can reveal the entire process of creation from the drawing and abstract underpainting to the finished areas of refinement,” Williams says. “The belief in the process of creation is just as important as
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A Sense of Intimacy

A Sense of Intimacy

February 7, 2025 | by

Since she started exhibiting her work 15 years ago, Naomi Shachar’s emotive oil paintings of Western scenes and personalities have been celebrated and honored in competitions and exhibitions across the country. But, when she was just starting out as an artist, she aimed to please only one critic: her mother, Esther Katz. Seeking her mother’s input wasn’t solely about familiarity or honesty, but more about the respect she had for her mother’s appreciation of good art—her eye for it, her sensibilities. “She had a keen eye for art and could discern quality workmanship of form and color,” says Shachar, who
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‘I Believe in Callings’

‘I Believe in Callings’

February 7, 2025 | by

Lying on her back, flat on the ground, watching the clouds’ antics for hours. Running barefoot through the woods, dog beside her, throwing her head back and embracing the sun with arms and laughter. Moving from full throttle to dead stop in an instant, captured by the beauty of a tree. Creeping up on a view as if trying not to scare it away, hoping to snapshot the perfect ray of light in the camera of her mind’s eye. These are some of the earliest memories of landscape artist Romona Youngquist. They are also some of her most recent memories
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A Long and Winding Road

A Long and Winding Road

February 7, 2025 | by

“I’ve probably had a different journey to art than most artists,” says oil painter Lauri Ketchum, in what is actually a monumental understatement. “As a kid, I liked art and had an artistic brother, but I played basketball. I had nothing to do with art, didn’t pursue it whatsoever.” Ketchum’s decidedly uncreative path continued during her college years. “In college I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something that leads to a good job,’ so I went into accounting, which I always hated but which offered good career options,” she says. Three years after earning a degree in accounting from Oklahoma
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Spiritual Experiences

Spiritual Experiences

February 7, 2025 | by

When Randy Van Beek sees a landscape that he wants to paint, he grabs his camera and his outdoor painting kit. He then alternates between painting a small study that captures the light, colors, and emotions of the place and looking through the lens of his camera to compose the scene. “The adrenaline just starts rushing through me when I look through the camera lens,” he says. “With your eyes, you’re taking too much in, and there’s no way to communicate all of it. But with the camera, I find the little slices that are the most interesting. It’s all
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The Studio of Donna Howell-Sickles

The Studio of Donna Howell-Sickles

February 7, 2025 | by

Working in a studio that overlooks the historic square in Saint Jo, Texas, Donna Howell-Sickles is surrounded by the tools and atmosphere she needs to create her award-winning paintings and drawings of women who inspire her: cowgirls. She previously worked in a studio—a former church—in the city, but left that behind in 2013, after she and her husband John opened a gallery downtown and renovated that building to include a studio on the second floor. “It turned out to be a fabulous thing,” Howell-Sickles says. “It’s a beautiful space that is much more public than the sanctuary-like space of the
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‘Its All About Having That Touch’

‘Its All About Having That Touch’

February 7, 2025 | by

“I’m geared to winning the rodeos, painting live, and really being a real cowboy,” says artist and competitive roper Bradley Chance Hays. And that’s exactly what his life has looked like so far. Hays has been pursuing rodeo and art since he was a child growing up in Oklahoma. He started training in bull riding and roping when he was about 12 years old, which was also about the same time he started seeing art as a possible career path. “I illustrated a children’s book called ‘Dragonfly,’ and it was published by Ozark Publishing out of Arkansas,” Hays says. “It
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