After a stint in Korea with Uncle Sam, Beeler met and married Sharon McPherson in the summer of 1956. He earned a degree in fine art from Kansas State College, and then went on to California for further study at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. Back in Osage country after just a year out West, the Beelers settled in a small rural cabin where Joe struggled to paint for a living with time off daily to shoot something for supper.

Tough times measure a man's mettle. Beeler painted neighboring ranchers' prize bulls and horses, and worked tirelessly on more meaningful pieces in the tradition of his hero, Charlie Russell. Recognition came slow, but it came, and in 1961 the Beelers left the Oklahoma hills for the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. With new country and fresh inspiration, Beeler's talent quickened to a gallop.

In the almost 40 years since, Beeler has earned his place in the vanguard of the contemporary Western art movement, with one-man exhibitions at every major Western art museum venue and as a founding member of the Cowboy Artists of America.

The faces in Joe Beeler's paintings and sculptures shine with the wonder of Western life. Their eyes look both within and without, searching for and capturing the soul of the land.

Today, living with his family in Western Colorado, Gerald has achieved many goals in his career as one of the countries top watercolor artists. He travels every year in search of new and exciting subject matter, painting on location as in the studio. His extensive travels have taken him to China, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tahiti, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, and locations throughout he United States. At home he continues to paint the splendor of the Rocky Mountains and the red rock canyonlands near his home. Gerald says that his watercolors are a "slice of my life", a very personal view of the world that he experiences wherever he travels, both at home and abroad. "Plein air painting on location has helped me approach my watercolors in a very spontaneous and colorful way, boldly responding to each exciting subject with great emotion." Gerald’s maturity and self-confidence in this respect has taken him to that level.

Fritzler watercolors have been featured in a number of fine art magazines including American Artist, Artist of the Rockies and the Golden West, The Artist's Magazine, Southwest Art, and Art of the West. His work has been published in numerous books including "Best of Watercolor", "Splash III, IV, and V", "A Gallery of Marine Art", "Contemporary Western Artists", "Watercolor Expressions", "A Simple Secret to Better Painting", and others.

With over four decades building a world-renowned watercolor career, Gerald Fritzler has shifted his focus toward complete chromatic freedom. Using his experience and expertise with color, composition, value, and movement, Fritzler has moved into the world of abstraction. Often not using brushes, he has taken to paint applied to the canvas and moved over the surface with various scrapers. The new venture has offered both control and a new found freedom in these spectacular works.

Gerald is a member of the National Watercolor Society, Transparent Watercolor Society of America, California Art Club, The Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society, Northwest Rendezvous Group and a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA).

Gonske studied at the Frank Reilly School of Art in New York City. The late Reilly gave him solid training in illustration. After a number of years as a successful illustrator in New York, he moved to Taos in 1972, where he began to work almost exclusively on location. Frustrated by the limitations inclement weather imposed on his painting in plein-air, he set about customizing a Ford pickup into a "paintmobile," or rather, a studio on wheels. This mobile studio is stocked with canvases of various sizes and textures, and allows him to go on painting trips throughout California, Colorado, or wherever the road may lead.

“My best work comes when I’m able to give up control, to trust my impulses. Then the painting takes on a life of its own.”
— Walt Gonske

Always applying the fundamental principles, Grant has evolved his own techniques of translating impressions gathered from Nature. A compelling love for the changing moods of the mountains has drawn him into the high country of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Canada to paint. Often working in remote areas, Lanny makes numerous sketches and oil color studies for use as reference in doing larger studio paintings.  Lanny feels that the spontaneity of composition and accuracy of color that results from painting on location is invaluable.

The result of this dedicated work has been a fresh and accurate portrayal of the many moods of the changing seasons in the Rockies. The quality of light in the alpine country and clarity of color come through in Grants paintings, drawing the viewer into them to perhaps re-kindle a personal memory of the mountains.

Lanny is a signature member of Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters and has participated in the group shows and events since 2002. Paintings by Lanny Grant are included in numerous private and corporate collections. In 2002 Grant was commissioned to create a painting of Mount of the Holy Cross to commemorate the 1993 visit to Colorado by Pope John Paul II. The painting is now part of the permanent art collection at the Vatican in Rome. In 2004 the State of Colorado acquired a Grant original oil of Vail Valley which now hangs in the Governors reception area at the Sate Capitol in Denver. Paintings by Lanny Grant have been featured for many years as popular greeting cards by the Leanin' Tree Publishing Company in Boulder, Colorado. Lanny has had paintings included in the 'Top 100' finalists in the annual Arts for the Parks competition in 1995 and 2002 in Jackson, Wyoming. 

Over the past twenty years, Hosner had the honor of the friendship and personal mentoring of Max Altekruse, who post-World War II was a student of the distinguished Frank Reilly, of the Art Students League of New York, who apprenticed under the renowned Dean Cornwell.

W. Truman Hosner is a Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America, a Master Pastelist with the International Association of Pastel Societies, Maitre Pastelliste for the Pastel Society of Eastern Canada, and a Distinguished Master with the Pastel Society of the West Coast.

“I have been making art in one form or another for over forty years.  Ultimately, the years have led me to try and put any pretentiousness aside and give commonplace things a sense of poetry.  I seek a noble vision of mankind, of nature … what you see is part of my journey.”
— W. Truman Hosner

The artist has an M.F.A. degree in painting from Utah State University and a B.A. degree in studio art from Westminster College. There he studied with Don C. Doxey and also with Harrison Groutage, both of who worked in a representation style of painting. These painters influenced his approach to painting in his chosen medium of watercolor for over thirty years. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the Transparent Society of America, and the Florida Watercolor Society. He has also exhibited nationally in the American Watercolor Society. He recently won an award in the 92nd Grand National Exhibition of the American Artists Professional League held in New York City at the Salmagundi Club. He has also won the John Singer Sargent Memorial award in the Transparent Watercolor Society Show 2014 and has exhibited in Watercolor USA, Watercolor West, Taos National Exhibition of American Watercolors, and the Hudson Valley Exhibition in New York.  His work is  currently represented by Santa Fe Trails Fine Art  in Santa Fe and the Clagget Rey gallery in Edwards,Co.  He has conducted painting workshops in many states including Washington State, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Florida, North Carolina, and Lucca, Italy. 

His one-man exhibition entitled “Town and Country” at the Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, Wyoming included thirty paintings of architectural and landscape themes of his native Wyoming. It began October 9th of 2015 and concluded January 17th.  He has been an artist for five years in the Prix de West exhibition of Western art held at the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 2021 his painting titled “Sunset Reflections” was awarded the Donald Teague award given to an artist whose work was created on a paper surface and also in 2024. His work has been featured in the June issue of Southwest Art magazine previewing the 2018 of this show. His paintings have also been included in the Sept. Oct. issue of Fine Art Connoisseur  magazine featuring art of the west and an article on Look Up with paintings of skyscapes. His work was included in the Old West Museum show 2020 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Art of the West magazine featured his work in the May-June issue 2023 along with a major article on his life as an artist working in watercolor. 

Over the years Penix's work has changed greatly and continues to evolve with each painting. "I never want to be stuck painting only one way or only one subject matter. Variety is what is exciting.

Penix has had the opportunity to work under Quang Ho and later with C.W. Mundy. "They have helped me as an artist immensely. I am so thankful that they have been willing to feed into my life as they have."

Penix has been recognized and won awards in almost 100 national competitions since 2010. As of 2021 ArtDataIntel collected data on artists around the country and their findings found that Derek, to date, is the most awarded artist in the country. Penix paints full time and also teaches art workshops around the country. He currently lives in Southern California.

Reiss became a portraitist. His philosophy was that an artist must travel to find the most interesting subjects; influenced by his father and his own curiosity, he drew subjects from many peoples and walks of life. In 1913 he immigrated to the United States, where he was able to follow his interest in Native Americans. In 1920 he went West for the first time, working for a lengthy period on the Blackfeet Reservation. Over the years Reiss painted more than 250 works depicting Native Americans. These paintings by Reiss became known more widely beginning in the 1920 and to the 1950s, when the Great Northern Railway commissioned Reiss to do paintings of the Blackfeet which were then distributed widely as lithographed reproductions on Great Northern calendars. In 1931, and 1934-37, Reiss organized a summer art school, also referred to as an artists’ colony near Glacier National Park.

Documenting the West of his time, Jim visits ranches to paint field studies and photograph action scenes. His love of horses has led him to study, paint and photograph the wild horse in its environment. However, now and then, he travels to either the east or the west coast for an "ocean fix", where he can enjoy painting a completely different subject matter.

Collected nationally and internationally, Jim's work has also been exhibited in many noted shows and locations including the Fredric Remington Museum in New York.

His paintings have been used by Bantam Books for covers of Louis L'Amour and Bonanza hardback and paperback books, as well as, audiocassette covers and calendars.

Articles regarding Jim paintings have been published in Southwest Art, Art of the West, Artists of the Rockies, Art Talk and International Fine Art Magazine, as well as others. His work has also been featured in numerous newspapers in the western United States. 

In 1985, Smith earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Arizona State University. Somewhat frustrated with the abstract focus of the program at ASU he began looking to outside sources for inspiration and guidance. These sources included fellow artists, fine galleries and museums. This is where his "real" education began.

These days, Matt can often be found painting en Plein air from southern Arizona to the Canadian Rockies, from the California coast to the Rocky Mountains. "I appreciate traditional landscape painting and I am inspired by the pristine landscapes of the American West.  I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without seeing the influence of man.  When I paint, I feel I've hit the mark when I've captured a balance between mood, look and feel.    Description text goes here

Snidow is recording other aspects of his time. Those include his American Woman Series, Homeless, Wildlife, and one specific work recognizable anywhere in the country today - an adobe wall covered with graffiti. All are parts of his view of the "whole fabric" of the modern West. He paints it not as he would like it to be, but the way it is - ugliness and all. There are no guarantees for the future of the cowboy, but there is for his past. Thanks to Gordon Snidow, the cowboy in the late 20th century, and his Western world will be preserved.

Snidow was born in Paris, Missouri in 1936 and moved from there to Oklahoma, and then to Texas. He earned a BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, CA. He is a charter member of the Cowboy Artists of America. When he retired after 25 years to become a member emeritus, he was the Cowboy Artists Of America top medal winner. Snidow had won 27 Gold and Silver Medals, including three for Best of Show. His work can be found in the permanent collection of the leading Western art museums including the Thomas Gilcrease Museum, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, the Cody Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum.

In 2003, Snidow was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building in Washington DC. The exhibition, "Gordon Snidow - My Story" featured more than 100 works of art spanning over four decades of his career. 

The artist was born in New Mexico, and raised in the Four Corners area of the state, where he acquired and developed his eye for dramatic landscapes. He attended Farmington High School and the San Juan Campus of New Mexico State University.  In 1974, Curt moved to Taos, NM and began working and studying with artists of the Central Valley, including the well known landscape painter Wilson Hurley. In 1977, Curt won the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Award, and due to growing interest after the award, Curt was contacted by Ted and Christine Mollring, the owners of Trailside Galleries. They began showing his work in both the Jackson, Wyoming and Scottsdale, Arizona locations. The relationship continues with the gallery, as Curt still shows his work with Trailside today. Curt’s move to Sedona was prompted by both his representation at Trailside, and because of the proximity to the Grand Canyon. Once settled in Arizona, Curt was given his first national coverage in 1980, through American Artist Magazine. Stephen Doherty, the young editor at the time, has played a great role in covering Curt’s career ever since.

“I paint the air that surrounds my subjects and reveals a deeper understanding of the moment and emotions, time stamped in each and every one of my paintings”
— Curt Walters