KAREN BONNIE
Born in Wisconsin, with her growing years rooted in the Midwest and many summers spent on an uncle’s farm, Karen Bonnie kindled an early love for horses. She fi rst expressed this passion through her drawing pencils and later, in her interest in western history, cowboy legend and Native American horse cultures. Her work in the creative fi elds has always interlaced with horses. From a commercial photography career she expanded into advertising and graphic design, while pursuing a hobby of training retired race horses for the dressage arena.

In 1991, Karen drew on her knowledge of ancient and traditional techniques and launched an award-winning buckskin garment company. It was when she met Linda and Dean St. Clair that she took the leap into fi ne art as a profession, relocating from New Mexico to Del Norte, Colorado where she began painting. Since, Karen has rendered the objects of her passion - modern and historical ranching, Native American culture, wilderness, wildlife and, of course, horses - in vibrant, fl uid colors that are achievable only in oil paints, a medium she feels is a living thing, tactile and fl owing. Karen says, “I am living every kid’s dream, riding in these high Colorado mountains after cows, building a spiritual connection with my beloved partner horses.“

Bonnie’s work is represented by major galleries in Montana, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and California, and is shown in a number of juried and invitational shows. In 2004 she earned the Tuffy Berg Award for “Best New Artist” at the annual Charles M. Russell Museum Show and Sale in Great Falls, Montana.

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CHARLIE EWING

Charles, a versatile artist with diverse interests in media as well as subject matter, is known for his figurative paintings of people, wildlife and nature. Along with his extensive use of oils, he works in a medium of his own invention known as Clayboard. This is Charles’ unique modifi cation of the scratchboard technique of scraping black ink to expose white clay beneath. The adaptation serves his remarkable creativity by allowing him to apply watermedia washes to a surface suitable to fi ne art, producing images that are simply varnished and framed without glass. Charles has also been instrumental in developing new printmaking techniques and enjoys the third dimension of bronze sculpture.


Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Charles now lives near Antonito, in the San Luis Valley. As an avid outdoorsman, he spends a great deal of time horseback in the high country wilderness of the nearby San Juan Mountains. His paintings of nature and wildlife come largely from his personal observations. Charles’ travels in Latin America and Europe also inspire his work and broaden his repertoire. His work is widely collected and he exhibits in several Southwest galleries.

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JIM GILMORE
Jim Gilmore is a true Colorado native, born and raised on a cattle ranch on the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley, where he continues to live and create his marvelous bronze sculptures of North American wildlife. He believes that a deep knowledge of anatomy and animal habits is crucial for the wildlife artist. Jim’s extensive experience with wildlife helps him depict the animal or bird he is modeling with an authenticity based on firsthand observation. The many days he spends in the mountains to research and photograph animals add to his knowledge of the subject he sculpts. “In my art, I strive to share with others the love and respect I have for nature. Living in the Rocky Mountains, I have had many extraordinary experiences throughout my life. Memories of an elk’s bugle echoing through a canyon or two black bear cubs exploring a new world are some of the many events that have inspired my work.” Jim has received national recognition for his sculpture and regularly participates in nationwide exhibitions. He has also completed many monuments, most recently a double life-sized bison and life-sized moose for new Cabela’s stores in South Dakota and Maine.

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KRISTIAN GOSAR

Kristian Gosar has been drawing and painting since a very early age. His formal training began at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado under Steve Quiller and Roger Williams. After studying architecture and environmental design at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Kris attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. There he was traditionally schooled by master artists in drawing, painting, and design, was especially inspired by his painting instructor, Dan McCaw, and graduated with honors in graphic design and illustration. Kris also studied under David Leffell at Andreeva Portrait Academy. He now teaches drawing and painting at Adams State College, working to inspire other artists to develop a strong foundation in drawing.

Gifted with sensitivity to the human form, Kris is inspired to convey the unnamable that exists in every human spirit and reveals itself in his figurative work through genuine brushwork on simple wood panels. Refreshingly honest, Kris’s current style requires no need to busy up his paintings with symbolism and heavy messages, for he fi nds limitless mysteries in the human form itself. Kris’ work takes the viewer far beyond realism to the place without names.

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CONI GRANT

Coni grew up in California, tagging along behind her dad who was a state naturalist and wildlife photographer.  It was on their explorations in wild places that she developed an eye and a heart for the great West.  She simply fell in love with the outdoors and even before she studied art in college, a passion for plein air painting had kindled within her.  Coni cultivated her talent for art with a BFA degree in graphic design from California State University Long Beach.  She went on to enjoy a rewarding 20 year design career in California, creating her own advertising and design studio, teaching graphic design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, and working with the San Francisco Society of Illustrators.  Her design clients there included Levi Strauss, Visa Corporation, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Southern Pacific Railroad.

Coni then came to Colorado and turned again to her love of painting.  She earned a Masters Degree in painting from Adams State College and opened the PleinView Painting Studio in Alamosa.  Combining her experience in design and her innate sense of innovative color, Coni now focuses her art on expressing distinctive views of the landscape.  She thinks of painting outside as “its own reward: part meditation, part athletic event – never less than an adventure.”

Coni lives with her husband and two children in Alamosa, Colorado where she paints and teaches in the amazing light and color of the San Luis Valley.  She is an active member of Plein Air Artists Colorado (PAAC), Plein Air Painters New Mexico (PAPNM) and founder of the San Luis Valley Painters.

JENNY INGE
Jenny Inge grew up on a farm outside of Dallas where she developed an inquisitive mind and a love of nature and horses. Even as a child she created sculptures from natural objects and crafted horsehair mementos of her equine friends. After receiving degrees in anthropology and art education from SMU, she began her career as a craftsman and jeweler. She continued to use the natural materials that had fascinated her as a child and during her science studies. Sophistication of skill and style grew as she combined treasures of bone, shell, fossil and hair with gold, silver and gemstones.

In 1974 Jennifer moved to the colorful mining town of Creede, Colorado and opened her Rare Things Gallery. She met the challenges of living an artists’ life with odd jobs of breaking colts and guiding elk hunts. Serendipitously, these experiences introduced her to “old timers” who shared with her the cowboy art of leather and hair braiding. Today she uses a number of refined braiding techniques to create contemporary horsehair jewelry and to preserve a fascinating old craft. Research into other cultures is a source of further inspiration for her designs, and the techniques she uses today go beyond the American West to roots in African, Asian and European tradition. Inge’s work has evolved as a mixture of fine craftsmanship, organic naturalism and classic elegance - a connection to the horse, to other cultures, to other times.

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BARBARA IVEY
A strong Native-American heritage and family history on ranches in Colorado and New Mexico inspire the western themes of Barbara Ivey’s work. Her ability to create powerful images of the land and people in bold rich colors has brought her great success. She spends many hours going to Pow Wows and on extended trips to Indian reservations where she gains understanding and knowledge of the people and their landscapes through a constant search for her signature subject, light and color

Barbara lives in both South Fork, Colorado and Dallas. She has a long list of juried invitations, including Albuquerque Museum Miniature shows, Mountain Oyster shows, Tucson AZ, Arts for the Parks, Gilcrease Miniature Shows, Tulsa OK, the 2007 Cowgirls Up Show in Wickenburg, AZ, and the prestigious American Women Artist and the West shows at the Tucson Museum of Art. In 2004 she was invited to participate with other artists in the painting of a three-quarter size buffalo sculpture for an auction to benefi t the CM Russell Museum. Many awards distinguish her work, including the Grumbacher Gold Medal, Daler-Rowney Gold Medal 1999, Artist Choice at the Midwest Gathering of Artists in Carthage, Missouri, and fi nalist in the Artist’s Magazine Art Competition of 11,500 entries. She is represented by galleries in Edwards, Colorado and Austin, Texas.

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TOM LOCKHART

Colorado native Tom Lockhart was born and raised in the heart of the San Luis Valley in Monte Vista Colorado. A recent move to Canon City, Colorado has proven to be a wonderful change to Tom’s artistic life.

Tom has received many awards for his artwork and is an active member of several art Organizations. Tom recently won The Southwest Art Magazine’s Artist Choice for the Best Painting at the 2008 Telluride Plein-Air Festival.  He also won best of Show for the Colorado Watercolor Society, and has been a two time Region III Winner for the Arts in the Parks.  Tom has been chosen for the Top 100 and the Top Mini 100 for the New Exhibition, “Paint the Parks” for Paint America. He holds Signature Membership in the (NWR) Northwest Rendezvous of Art, (OPA) Oil Painters of America, (RMPAP) Rocky Mountain Plein-Air Painters, Outdoor Painters Society, and Landscape Artists International.

He has been included in many prestigious National Exhibitions including the Cheyenne Frontier Days Art Show 2009-2006, C. M. Russell Show and Auction for several years, the Colorado Governors Show, OPA National, The Arts for the Parks 2006-1993.

Tom has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Fremont Center for the Arts in Canon City and is actively involved in many community activities dealing with art and art education. Tom has also been chosen to be the Featured Artist for the upcoming Fall Festival and the Holy Cross Winery Poster and Fine Art Image for 2009/10.

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JACK MARTIN

Jack Martin is a man who has known more than one world.  He haslived the varied lives of ranching, surveying, engineering, and art.  A native of the San Luis Valley, he grew up on a ranch on the Rio Grande River two miles east of Del Norte, Colorado. After high school, he moved to the east side of The Valley to attend Adams State College in Alamosa, where he pursued an expanded major in fine arts. To fund his college education, Jack worked summers and weekends doing land surveying for a local engineering company.  This part-time work led to a career in the civil engineering field and it was not until 2001 that he made the decision to devote more of himself to the creation of works of art.  He has explored a wide range of media, including pen & ink drawings, sculptures in stone, metal and wood, stoneware pottery, and creative furniture in recycled wood. Presently Jack’s major art emphasis is the crafting of unique jewelry, tangible expressions of beauty, talent and artistic passion.

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CARLOS MARTINEZ

Carlos was born in 1985 into a Valley family that has lived and farmed in San Luis, Colorado for generations.  There they have found sustenance and joy in tending their lands, their rich and rare piece of Earth.  In this circle of family, Carlos’ connection to the land began early. As a small child he made pencil drawings of the landscape and animals around him and continued sketching throughout his school years, content with what he presumed was a quiet talent.  It was in college art classes that a world of color and paint suddenly opened for him and there that his skills began to bloom.  For the last year he has studied with Randy Pijoan and Gene Shilling at the Ventero Open Press in San Luis.  He works in oils and acrylics on a variety on subjects including landscapes and figures and enjoying exploring exciting palettes and new techniques.  Carlos gives determination and devotion to his art.  It is what he loves and what, he feels, will be his happiness and satisfaction.  He paints each new piece with the mantra, “Nature is what makes our lives worth living and is a gift to our eyes.”

Roberts' work has been published in Southwest Art magazine, American Art Collector, and Focus Santa Fe,  She has also been featured in The Artists’ Magazine and was distinguished in winning second place in the landscape category of their 2004 art competition, as well as being a finalist in their 2001 and 2005 competitions.  She is a signature member of Oil Painters of America, exhibits in the Salon International, and in the Arts for the Parks and Paint America traveling exhibits as well.

Rita works in oil and, using only a single pallet knife, she achieves simultaneous realism and emotion in her paintings.  Her stirring work carries a message of nature and landscape to balance the dissonance in today’s highly mobile, technical world.   She invites those who view her paintings to connect with the images and begin a personal meditative journey.

Currently Rita is doing graduate studies in illustration and screenwriting with the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.   Five of her pieces were selected for their annual spring show, an elite grouping of student work designed as the college’s  showcase to art industry leaders.

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JOCELYN RUSSELL

Jocelyn Russell is an avid outdoor and wildlife enthusiast, born and raised in Alamosa, Colorado. Today, she lives in the San Juan Islands of Washington state, but still loves and misses the people of Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
From an early age, Jocelyn’s frequent family trips to the mountains afforded her hands-on experiences with nature, and it was her parents’ encouragement that kindled her desire to pursue her childhood passion for being an artist.
Through unlimited support of family and friends, she has fl ourished in the opportunities of the art world and is now internationally recognized for both her wildlife paintings and her sculpture, including several monumental bronze pieces. Her focus has primarily been big game and predators of the Rocky Mountains. She does though enjoy the versatility of tackling a range of subjects and mediums that keep her inspirations alive. Her dedication to research has taken her far afi eld to exciting new places like Patagonia, Costa Rica, Alaska and Africa that have stirred her creative mind and fed her remarkable artistry.

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KAREN SLADE

Although she grew up in Florida, Karen Slade’s birth in Oklahoma, on the border of The Great West, sent down strong roots that have guided her ever since.   She attributes these never-forgotten ties to the influence of her father.  He was an architect in whose footsteps she followed in studying architecture herself at the University of Florida.  She began then a migration west and settled in Littleton, Colorado where she worked in the ski industry as a representative for Jean Claude Killy.  This afforded her the happy opportunity to travel the mountains and plains from Montana to Texas, The images from those years, of wheat fields, ranches, and cowboys, combined with the appeal of Edwin Curtis’ photography, inspired her to paint.  When she retired, she began to devote time and heart to her talent. 

Karen’s work has been exhibited in galleries, libraries and art shows and may currently be seen at the Boulder Gallery and Colorado Land Company Gallery in the Denver area and the Mountain Lighthouse Gallery in South Fork, Colorado.  Now in her new home and studio in South Fork, Karen lives and works close to her favorite subject, the West.

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ANNIE TRONCOSO

Annette Troncoso was born in East Los Angeles, California where she spent her early years and discovered her appetite for art at an early age.  She did not receive formal training until earning a Bachelor of Arts degree at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.  A few years later, the opportunity arose to study at the Art Students League in New York.  She worked there principally with Harvey Dinnerstein, and attended the National Academy of Design and the New York Art Institute.  Practicing her belief that artists are life-long learners, Annette has formed associations with the Etchers Club and Eli Levin’s painting group of Santa Fe, and with local San Luis Valley artists.

Having spent time in both urban centers and the rural west, Annette feels that one world is not enough.  She seeks opportunities to express her art from both experiences. Her work has always been infused with an aura of community, especially evident in her recent figure work. For the last decade, Annette has been painting migrant workers in a series of paintings titled Agriculture at the Turn of the Century.  She undertook this project out of her great respect for Cesar Chavez and admiration for the exquisite beauty of the workers’ human spirit, and to illustrate the contrast of a technology-oriented society and the simplicity of fieldworkers who still labor with their hands.  

Annette has long been interested in the environment.  She spent extensive time in the Sierras and on the John Muir Trail, and has been commissioned to illustrate guidebooks for Arizona hiking trails.  It was the natural beauties of the San Luis Valley that called her to make her home here.  Though her major focus is the human figure, her outdoor experiences are reflected by placement of her subjects in beautiful settings where nature provides a dynamic, meaningful background.

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MARK WINTER - The Historic Toadlena Trading Post

The Historic Toadlena Trading Post was established in 1909 and restored in 1997 by renowned rug dealer, museum curator, and Navajo weaving expert Mark Winter, in a manner that maintains the historic atmosphere of the old post. Set against the Chuska Mountains, the post has a panoramic view of the surrounding Toadlena/Two Grey Hills area. The Navajo name for the area is To Haali, meaning “water bubbling up”, referring to the spring that surfaces on the site. The early traders at Toadlena and nearby Two Grey Hills Trading Post were instrumental in the development of the exquisite Two Grey Hills weaving style. They encouraged the weavers in the area to enhance their designs, use natural colors from local fl eeces, and improve the fineness of their spinning and weaving, the characteristics that distinguish the area’s famous weavings.

Now the most recognized of contemporary Navajo weaving styles, the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills rugs and tapestries are the most popular and collectible of the regional Navajo rug styles. Today the post is set up in historical “bull pen” style and still trades and carries accounts with local weavers. The post buys wool from the owners of local flocks and pays considerably more for textiles using handspun local wool and holds an annual carding and spinning workshop at which young weavers learn these arts from older masters.

In encouraging young weavers, the post has purchased over 125 first rugs since reopening in 1997. Since 1997, the museum housed at Toadlena has featured six different exhibits, each honoring the artistry of past and present local weavers. The current exhibit, “Toadlena Ten Years, a Retrospective”, celebrates the history of the areas weavers since 1900 along with examples of the best textiles woven for Toadlena Trading Post since the re-establishment of the post ten years ago. Trader Mark Winter will provide Keep the Rio Grande Grand with a selection.

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JOE ZINN

The boyhood gift of a camera from his father, who introduced him to the fundamentals of light, exposure and photographic technique, launched Joe Zinn’s life-long fascination with the camera and its power. From there forward he studied photography and imagery from many perspectives: traditions of the great American photographers, graphic arts and illustration, theories of camera techniques, composition and light taught by the Kodak School of Photography, personal instruction with Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Paul Maloney, portrait photography, and the art of capturing landscape and nature on fi lm. For more than 30 years he has been a working photographer and since 2000, Joe has pursued his photography full time.

Through his work to protect the cultural heritage of family landholdings in southern Colorado, Joe’s images of the San Luis Valley have received attention and acclaim and were selected for publication in the Library of Congress. His photographic prints are exhibited in fi ne art shows and in a wide variety of publications. Most recently, his work has been published in the Washington Post and used by Duke University for environmental issues presentations to the United States Congress. Joe is keenly attuned to the gifts of life and creativity, time and place. He offers a message that underlies his work when he says, “I invite you to be aware of this world, go into nature, and let her feed your spirit, learn from her, respect her, and protect her.” Joe makes him home along the Rio Grande near Monte Vista, Colorado.

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