Past Featured Artists

Ann Whitfield

Whitfield, a Beulah, Colorado resident, volunteers to survey and record rock art of Picture Canyon for the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Parks Service. She has studied arboglyphs and conducted archival lab and excavation projects. She serves as the Project Chair and Secretary of Colorado Rock Art Association.

According to Whitfield, the Purgatory River Drainage is one of the richest sources of rock art in the state of Colorado. Southeastern Colorado, itself, has an abundance of this seldom seen cultural resource. If ranch lands of the Purgatory are condemned, the possibility of citizens viewing these treasures is severely reduced.

Rock art refers to the symbolic marks on stone left by Native Peoples. Regionally, rock art may be found either painted or carved on canyon walls or boulders. It could also be considered rock writing. The importance of these ancient remains tells us quite a bit about their technology, architecture, and their way of life.

Whitfield’s work in pastels is a new medium for her. Previously well known for her photography, she is gaining local prominence for her paintings.

Manyik Family

The Manyik family – Sherry, Jay and Jeremy – holds a special place in the Museum’s heart because not only are all three gifted artists, but each has ties to our Koshare program. Jay and Jeremy were Koshare Indian Dancers from age 11 until they graduated from the program at the age of 18. We were able to woo Jeremy back four years ago to serve as the program director and current Museum curator. He has built the Koshare program back to international prominence, having recently toured and performed in Japan. Their mother Sherry was a Koshare “Mom” for the years her sons participated in the program and was employed by the Museum to create the Artist of the Month series many years ago.

This family of gifted artists has been amazing the art world since Jay and Jeremy (twins) started showing their works in grade school. They often won juried prizes in categories high above their age brackets. Both boys credit their mother with teaching them the basics of painting. The rest of their artistry was self-taught although Jeremy did take several art workshops – the most notable being with famed naturalist artist, Robert Bateman. Jeremy paints in acrylic and oil and his subject matter is of portraits and wild life.

Like his twin brother, Jay also perfected his artistic skills from self exploration and practice, starting when he was quite young. Jay works and resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is best known for his portraits and works mostly in charcoal.

Sherry Manyik is well known throughout the Arkansas Valley and credits her early art training to Mary Iliff Pringle. Sherry raised five children in La Junta. Her twin sons inherited her artistic ability and went on to become favored artists for many patrons in the Southwest. Sherry paints mostly in oil and is known for her still life and landscapes.

Julio Castillo

Julio Castillo presents pastel and oil paintings of the indigenous people of Mexico. Castillo was born in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. He started drawing by the age of nine and was enrolled in the School of Fine Arts by the age of 10. Unfortunately his family resources were little, so he had to quit the fine art school by age 12. Julio continued his studies on his own, studying books, magazines and cinema images as he slowly perfected his technique.

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Carla Romero

Carla Romero, a Folwer native, is a self-taught artist who discovered water colors in 1987 and that opened her eyes and spirit to a whole new world of expression. She is best known for her peaceful snow scenes, Southwest landscapes and wildlife and mountain scenes. Her spirituality and love of Native American and Southwestern culture come alive in her paintings, which are gaining more notoriety and value every year. She is pleased to be displaying at the Koshare Indian Museum, a place she remembers fondly as a young student.

Carla’s artwork is exhibited in galleries throughout New Mexico and Colorado, and her paintings are part of commercial and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

carlaromero.com

Donna Abert

Donna graduated from Rocky Ford High School where her art instructor was James Meek (who later owned a gallery in Taos, New Mexico). She graduated from Otero Junior College, instructed by Marge Blevins, and then from CSU-Pueblo with a degree in Fine Arts. Donna continued her education by receiving a Masters Degree in Creative Arts Education from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She taught school for 18 years at the La Junta Middle School, after doing her student teaching at La Junta High School under Bonna Hammond’s tutelage.

Still a Rocky Ford resident, Donna believes that everyone is an artist. It just takes tapping into innate talents, using the right side of the brain and lots of hard work and study. She prefers painting in oil, but has worked in watercolor, gouche, pastel and pencil.

Eldon Warren

Eldon Warren is an impressionist oil painter of the western landscape. He was born in Nebraska in 1952 and now makes his home in Colorado. He ended up at Colorado Boys Ranch, at La Junta, Colorado, in 1967. Growing up, there wasn't money to buy paint and brushes and the other things a young artist needs so Eldon spent most of his time with a pencil and paper drawing the things around him. The Ranch Administrator's wife, taking an interest in the development of Eldon's artistic skills, took him to town and bought oil paint, brushes and canvas. This marked the beginning of a life-long career as an artist.

Michael Untiedt

Michael Untiedt (born in Lamar, CO and currently residing in Denver), says of his artistry: "I am a believer in the brotherhood of man, of the common truths that are important to and affect and bind us all together. That is what my painting is about, of the universal things."

Tim Deibler

Tim Deibler (born in Oklahoma and currently residing in Walsenburg, CO) strated painting when he was 13, teaching himself to paint from photographs. "It used to frustrate my teachers because I wouldn't copy the photo exactly," he reminisced. "I always used a photograph just as a starting place, not as a finishing place. Photos show details, but no emotion."

Gordon McConnell

Former Koshare and La Junta native, Gordon McConnell returned to the Museum as our August 2009 Artist of the Month. Creating paintings inspired by western movies, Remington and Russell, he is truly a son of the west. (He now resides in Billings, Montana.) Gordon studied art at Baylor University, California Art Institiute and received his masters at Colorado University, Boulder. For two decades he worked as curator for the Yellowstone Art Museum and has been a full time painter and independent curator since 1999.

Bill Miller

A Mohican Indian from northern Wisconsin, Miller is an award-winning recording artist, performer, songwriter, activist, painter and accomplished flute player.

Miller says of his art, “With my painting I honor my heritage, my people and promote hope throughout the nations.” He attended the Layton School of Art, now the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and went on to further his education in the fine arts at the University of Wisconsin–LaCrosse.

Karen Voepel

An award-winning freelance photographer from South East Colorado. Her work has been published in the National Audubon Magazine and the Colorado Heritage Trails brochure, and can be seen in the Koshare Indian Museum throughout the month of November.

www.photographykv.com

Ed Posa

Ed Posa has developed over the years a unique style of characterizing the authentic American Southwest. Posa's use of vibrant watercolors and gouache creates an image by blending traditional Old World southwestern themes with contemporary colors and dramatic impressionistic concepts. His mystical Indians and sweeping, vertical skies have become a trademark and are seen in many of his works.
His original watercolors are now on display at fine art galleries throughout the US, and many of his works are available in limited edition prints.

www.edposa.com