Deb Baughman

Watercolors and oils, midwest landscapes and images from vintage photos. Plain air paintings, slightly impressionistic.

Lisa Cooper
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Cooper-Artist/

Painting pet personalities - from dogs, cats to cows and donkeys. I love to capture each pet's personality on canvas.

Nash Cox
www.facebook.com/nashcoxart

A self taught watercolor artist, Nash has paired a love of art with a fascination for old vehicles, rusting iron, and architecture. With a couple cameras on the passenger seat of his 1953 GMC pickup he is always on the lookout for some forgotten piece of Americana with one last story to tell. A member of the Iowa Watercolor Society and Iowa Artists, Nash's work was displayed at the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Show last year.

Gwen Foster

Gwen Foster was born and raised in Arizona where she lived first in the southern desert part of the state then in the high pine country of Flagstaff. Gwen moved quite a number of times in her life eventually spending 6 years in Europe before returning to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Studio Art from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia then to San Diego where she graduated from The University of Phoenix with an MBA in Global Management in 2003.
 
Gwen’s interest in watercolor began long before she tried it herself. On trips to NYC to visit galleries and museums during her university days she gravitated toward the sparkling magic of the watercolor exhibits and like many people was intimidated by the rumors that it is a difficult medium to learn.
 
Once she graduated with her studio arts degree Gwen put intimidation aside and pursued learning watercolor with private instructors, workshops, and now 30 years and stacks and stacks of practice paper later she still considers herself a student of the medium. Its more fun that way.
 
Gwen moved from San Diego to Iowa in December of 2006 where she soon met Jo Myers-Walker and through Jo became involved with the Iowa Watercolor Society, Iowa Artists, and has been happily involved with the arts and artists in Iowa ever since. 

Charlotte Hamity

My medium of choice is transparent watercolor. Beginning in my high school days, it was oils at Cranbrook Academy and the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts. I attended Duke University (at my parent’s urging) for two years where I studied the history of art and architecture, their only art related classes at that time. Then the Chicago Academy of Fine Art where I was first introduced to watercolor.  After working in commercial art, I retired to Leadville, Colorado. Painting in watercolor was my choice because it is the most challenging. No going back and no do-overs. In the mountains I painted the gorgeous scenery and the old mines and Victorian homes. After moving to Iowa I paint the rivers and barns and anything that catches my eye. I enter several booth shows and competitions each year and plan to keep painting as long as I can hold a paint brush.

Flo Hayes
www.flohayes.com

After a successful career in the business world, Flo has returned to her true love of art, Educated in Chicago, Flo now resides in Iowa where she has found abundant beauty for artistic representation. Her work in pastels covers a multitude of subjects from landscapes and still life to contemporary marbles.

Diane Kunzler
www.kunzlerstudios.com

Diane has a degree in Art from Graceland University, Lamoni, IA and an MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in Boston, MA. Diane taught in the public school system for 38 years before her retirement in 2015. She still teaches a variety of workshops in pastel and painting and is an adjunct for Iowa Central Community College.  She has shown in juried and one person shows around the Midwest. ​

Diane's work focuses on the environment with a particular interest in the Iowa landscape. From traditional panoramic views to close-cropped views of streams and ponds, she explores an often, idealized sense of place.

Kelly Kunzler
www.kunzlerstudios.comwww.kunzlerstudios.com

Kelly graduated as a Painting and Sculpture major from Graceland University, Lamoni, IA.  He was featured as an Emerging artist at the Des Moines Arts Festival and has had work in exhibits around the Midwest.

Kelly's paintings and drawings are figurative, focusing on portraits and other subjects he finds interesting. His work is intuitive and usually includes text that incorporates interesting bits of biographical information for his human subjects and scientific facts or literary context for his animal subjects.

Leslie Leavenworth
www.leslieleavenworth.com

Although a nurse by profession, Leslie has studied painting since age six.  Now that her three children are raised, she has time to focus on developing her art.  Since moving here 16 years ago, Leslie has fallen in love with the quiet beauty of the Iowa landscape. You will find her most weekends painting on location with the Saturday sketch group or studying portraits under Mary Muller.  Leslie is experimental in her approach, trying a variety of mediums and subject ideas.  Her artwork is an eclectic mix of landscapes, portraits, and abstracts reflecting this journey of exploration.   

Leslie has participated in juried shows in the metro area, and her awards include first place in oil painting at the Iowa State Fair, first place at the Hoyt Sherman Women's Show and best in show at the Heritage Gallery Des Moines Exhibited Show.  She is a signature member of the Iowa Watercolor Society.

She believes she paints best out of her joy, and she finds great satisfaction in communicating that joy to others through her artwork.

Jennifer Mally
​ www.etsy.com/shop/jennifermally   www.facebook.com/JenniferMallyArt

Every painting of mine is meant to express the simple joy that can be found in any moment. They aren't moments of any earth-shaking proportions -- sometimes there's a story there, sometimes not. I take an idea and bring it down to its most basic form, and then throw back in unexpected detail and quirky interpretation. Nature is my greatest inspiration, but symbols, pattern and words are also predominant in my work. I have a love of rhythm and repetition, depth of color, and creating works that make you smile. I use acrylic paints on canvas, watercolor paper and sometimes wood and other found stuff to bring my inspirations to life. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Minneapolis, I made Des Moines my home after getting my BA from Iowa State University.

Allison McEntire
allisonharbaughart.tumblr.com

My pieces are representational portraits done with charcoal on paper and acrylic on canvas. I am fascinated by portraiture and the history that goes with it. My pieces are a nod to traditional cameos, but done with a more modern approach.

Misty and Shawn Palek

Shawn Palek
With coming up on 27 years of experience in the industry, Shawn has achieved success over many spans of media, such as Art Shows, Competitions, Teaching, Television Interviews, Magazines and Rallies. He's accumulated many awards, and friends along the way. When asked what the best advice he'd ever received, it was "Get to Work!" That no one was going to do the work for him. He knew then, at the age of 19, that he wanted to leave his mark on this world, in one way or another! The airbrush found him, and he has mastered it's ability to achieve great things. Just like the airbrush found him, Shawn also believes he will always need to find the right person for each of his one-of-a-kind paintings. "The rightful owners of the painting are out there, you just have to find them!" Shawn is a master of "Speed-Realism." He spends his days teaching at a local college, participating in/and curating various art shows, as well as working on commission works for clients. You can visit his website to find out more:  www.shawnpalek.com 

Misty Palek
Shawn's wife is quite frankly, in love with watercolors, but not in the traditional sense. She enjoys using them in a non-traditional form, to create vibrant fruit and vegetable paintings, among other crazy depictions of photographs. She is also currently working on a new book series: Misty Palek is a short story author, and award winning illustrator/artist.  Her work is forthcoming to many venues, including Amazon.com, local and regional book stores.  When Misty isn't entertaining her Iowa based family and dogs, she's spending time illustrating her zany characters from her newest works: The FrVeges Series.   You can visit her work at MistyPalek.com

Anita Plucker
www.artworksbyanita.com​

My watercolor paintings reflect my life in northwest Iowa - waterscapes, rural landscapes and architecture indicative to the area. My approach to my art work is realistic.  I look for spatial relationships within my subject matter and I love surface texture, varied lines, negative spaces and the effects color can exude within a  piece.  My style ranges from loose flowing brushstrokes to tightly controlled detail. Currently my inspiration and focus for my work are the designs and patterns created as nature and man play with the surface of the land. I find beauty in the ordinary, often overlooked remnants of a vanishing way of life - the homesteads, farmsteads and the buildings now empty where family-owned businesses once thrived in Iowa's small towns.............where only memories linger now.

Anita Baedke-Plucker, nicknamed Katie, was born and raised in Terril, Iowa.  After graduating from Terril Community School, Anita attended Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa, receiving a BA in Art Education. She soon married and had two boys.  Anita put her artistic career on hold to stay at home, but as the boys grew older, Anita was able to create more artwork and began to enter area art shows.  Her career continued to grow as she went from art show to art show, to having limited-edition prints published, to displaying her work in juried national exhibitions and galleries. 
 
When she and her family moved back to the Terril area, Anita joined the Spencer Area Arts Council, and soon became Director of the Gallery Shop and later, worked full-time as the Director of Education and Outreach for Arts on Grand in Spencer. Following eight years at Arts on Grand, Anita taught Art at the Spencer Middle School for 15 years, enabling her finally to put her degree in education and her love to teach into full practice while still allowing her fragments of free time to create.  Anita recently retired and enjoys painting full time and conducts workshops throughout the Midwest.

Anita has been a popular art instructor for many art organizations, including Witter Gallery, the Pearson Lakes Art Center, Arts on Grand, the Amana Arts Guild, A Piece of Work, the Blanden Memorial Art Museum, the Dickinson County Nature Center and others.  She is a member of area arts councils, is a member of the Transparent Watercolor Society, a signature member of the Iowa Watercolor Society and a charter member of the Colored Pencil Society of America.   

Brandi Powell
http://www.brandipowell.com

Hand mixed acrylic paint, layered with stencil graphics, over vintage paper on canvas for texture.

Luke Schuster
www.lukews.portfoliobox.net

I do a lot of acrylic and watercolor paintings, sometimes they fall on the abstract side and sometimes they're more realistic. These are just the two pieces I've been working on this last week, my portfolio has a lot more examples of the different styles I work in.The first is an acrylic palette knife painting and the second is a  commissioned painting I did for a local bands' album cover.

Judy Thompson

Judy Thompson is a Midwesterner and has called Orange City, Iowa her home for over 30 years.  When her children left for college, Judy decided to turn her creative energy into artwork.  She also turned her son's room into her art studio (Sorry Scott!)  After many tubes of paint and countless sheets of watercolor paper, and hours of artistic experimentation, she has become and accomplished and recognized artist.

Judy's artwork has received national and regional awards, including first place honors in the annual juried Iowa Watercolor Society Exhibition.  She is also a grant recipient of the Iowa Arts Council through the National Endowments of the Arts.  In 2010, Judy was selected by the National Park Service as artist-in-residence at the Homestead National Monument, Beatrice, NE and again in 2013 through 2014 at Badlands National Park, Interior, SD. Her "Homestead Series", inspired by her first residency, continues to tour throughout the Midwest to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act.  Commissioned by the South Dakota Historical Society Press, Judy created the cover art for Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography, "Pioneer Girl" for which she has received worldwide acclaim.

When she is not doing her artwork, Judy enjoys biking and hiking with her husband Dale.  And no worries...there is always room at her house for her children to visit - even if they have to share a bedroom with a few pieces of art!

Melynda Van Zee
www.melyndavanzee.com

Artist Biography: Melynda Van Zee creates acrylic paintings with vibrant layers of translucent paint enhanced by swirling dimensional line work.  She shares her fine art work at art exhibits and shows throughout the Midwest. Her works are in the collections of numerous private and corporate collectors. She is the author of an art technique book, Painted Scrapbook Pages, published by Lark Books. Melynda earned her BA in Elementary Education and Art from Dordt College. She creates full time in her studio located in central Iowa.

Description of Work: Working with layers of transparent acrylic paint on canvas, I seek to capture brief glimpses of the emotional and spiritual landscapes of my soul. My work is created with gestural lines of acrylic polymer medium overlaid with multiple layers of translucent acrylic paint on stretched canvas. I am inspired by the challenge of intuitively transferring the invisible into shape and form and color. My artwork arises out of quiet reflection and internal observations. I am dedicated to ongoing creativity and nurturing creative hearts.