Ruth Andrews-Vreeland

Ruth began drawing at an early age and painting in oils at the age of ten, at her childhood home in Fresno, California. She has won numerous fine art and design awards throughout her life and was highly influenced by the west coast artists of Carmel, CA as a teen, taking instruction from some of them in oils and watercolor. An art major in college, Ruth had a lengthy successful career as a graphic designer in her adopted state of New Mexico where she has lived for 38 years. In addition, she taught graphic design and desktop publishing for several years at a local art college. She has painted in various mediums since childhood, concentrating on oils for many years, but almost completely transitioning over to watercolor in 2009, finding it to be an exciting, fast medium in which to work — where the water is a moving vehicle to carry the pigment into unexpected places. She is now a frequent top-award winner and Signature Member of the NM Watercolor Society, as well as a Signature Member of the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. Her work can be found in collections throughout the United States.

Kathi Geoffrion Parker

Kathi is a native New Mexican raised in Los Alamos. She obtained her Bachelors Degree in Art Education at Eastern New Mexico University then worked at Valliant Printing Company in Albuquerque as the art director for two years before starting her career at LANL as an illustrator, graphic designer, and web designer. Kathi retired from LANL almost seven years ago. She has been in several local galleries, the Fuller Lodge Art Center in Los Alamos, local art fairs, the Hispanic Art fair, the New Mexico Arts and Crafts fair, and is a signature member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society. In 2016, she had a painting accepted into the Western Watercolor Society Annual show in Colorado and will also be featured in a national watercolor publication Splash 18, to be released in fall of 2017. Kathi has returned to an old medium in the last several years, scratchboard, renewing her interest in black and white art. Her scratchboard art has been juried into several New Mexico Art League shows and the 2015 New Mexico State Fair Fine Arts show. Some of her newer pieces have featured some addition of colored inks to the medium.

Laura LoTurco-Gorian

Laura received her BFA and MFA from The School of Visual Arts in NYC . Her profession as a woman in the arts has spanned over thirty years. In 2008 she relocated from New York to New Mexico. A published illustrator, her work has been exhibited in NewYork, New Jersey and New Mexico. She has taught drawing at Santa Fe Community College as well as Creative Journaling and Monotypes at UNM and SFCC Continuing Education. Laura is inspired by the way that sunlight creates ever changing shadows or illuminates intricate details and reflections and she strives to achieve color and pattern created by the arrangement of elements as well as organic conditions in her work.

Michael Ottersen

Michael Ottersen was born in Massapequa, Long Island in 1956 and spent most of his youth in Norwalk, Connecticut. He attended Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and spent three semesters studying in Rome in Tyler's overseas program. He later moved to New York City where he lived and worked for twelve years in magazine production and design, for publications such as Artforum, Art News, and Metropolis, while maintaining a studio and art career and beginning an exhibition history. In 1992 Michael moved to New Mexico where he worked in book design and illustration while still pursuing a fine art career. Later relocating to Seattle, Washington, Michael began teaching at various schools and colleges in the Pacific Northwest for the next nineteen years which included the Gage Academy of Art, Pratt Fine Art Center, the Northwest College of Art and Design and Kirkland Art Center. Recently returning to New Mexico, he continues to teach classes at The New Mexico Art League. His work is represented in Seattle at Season Gallery.

Rachel Popowcer

Originally from the east coast, Rachel Popowcer is a mixed media oil painter who received her BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh and her MFA at UNM. She has exhibited her work extensively, and has participated in artist residencies such as the Vermont Studio Center. Her recent paintings and photographic works focus on color, composition, and symbolic imagery to deal with the chaos and boundaries inherent in everyday life. Rachel, currently adjunct faculty at CNM, created and teaches an art therapy class for the New Mexico Cancer Center, and also teaches private painting workshops; other positions have included the UNM Art Department, UNM's Continuing Education Program, The Harwood Art Center, The Albuquerque Museum, OASIS and more.

John Reger

John was born in Illinois in 1960, and worked for more than 20 years as an illustrator; initially enjoying the creativity necessary to complete pen and ink renderings, but as computer technology advanced, he found the work less-challenging, and he began his search for a truly creative career. John attended classes in Chicago; at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Vitruvian Fine Art Studio, and in 2007, enrolled at Studio Escalier; a private art school and international arts colony in Argenton-Chateau, France, where he completed his initial classical training with instructors Timothy Stotz and N. Michelle Tully, and met their instructor Ted Seth Jacobs. While at Studio Escalier, John learned that Anthony Ryder had also been Mr. Jacob’s student, and had a classical drawing and painting atelier in USA.  John subsequently applied for and was accepted at The Ryder Studio School in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2008. John continues to perfect his technique, form, and color, and in 2012, was honored to be chosen as the Teaching Assistant at the Ryder Studio School, and remains on the faculty there. John teaches workshops in Texas, California, and Oklahoma. He lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mary Sundstrom 

A Minnesota native, Mary Sundstrom attended college at the University of New Mexico where she graduated with a Fine Arts degree in printmaking. Her experience encompasses art instructor, printer/collaborator, printmaker, with 40+ years exhibiting her work around the country, book illustrator with 17 children's book titles and an Audubon field guide series as well as numerous exhibit illustrations for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. Mary had been a 10 year member and instructor at New Grounds Printshop in Albuquerque which she and three partners recently purchased and are the proud new owners of Remarque Print Workshop LLC.

Chandler Wigton

Chandler Wigton was born in Durango, CO in 1985. He studied art and history at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, graduating in 2008, and went on to earn his MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 2013. He spent his first year of graduate school living and working in Rome, Italy. Wigton employs drawing, collage, and painting to interpret his abstract experiences with places, books, and stories. Wigton has shown in Colorado, New Mexico, Rome, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Peru, and has been featured in New American Paintings twice: in the 2015 West issue and the 2013 MFA issue.

2018 Visiting Faculty

Stephanie Birdsall

Stephanie Birdsall received her formal training at the City and Guilds of London Art School in England. After graduation she spent time traveling through Europe honing her skills as a plein air painter. Upon her return to the United States, Stephanie continued her study with artists Doug Dawson, Albert Handel and Ramon Kelly. In 2006, Stephanie was invited to join a group of painters under the tutelage of renowned artist Richard Schmid. This began a period 8 years of intense focus and rapid growth painting with Richard and his wife Nancy Guzik and the others in the group now known as the Putney Painters. Stephanie’s work has garnered recognition and more than 60 major awards in national and international juried exhibitions. She has exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, England, Bargemon in France and at the National Arts Club in New York. Stephanie and her work have been featured in publications such as International Artist Magazine, Southwest Art, Plein Air Magazine , Fine Art Connoisseur, and The Pastel Journal. Public Broadcasting station WGCU aired a special on her work in June of 2005 as part of the "Expressions" series. Stephanie's work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of the Everglades, Everglades National Monument; Florida Museum of Art & Culture, The Florida State Art Collection at the Florida State Capital and The Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona. Stephanie was honored with a successful one-women show at the Florida Museum of Art and Culture in 2006.

J. Chris Morel

Living in New Mexico since 1994,  J. Chris Morel paints in the mountains outside of Taos. Inspired by the legacy of great painters of the area, past and present, Morel has found endless subject matter close to home. Most recently, in June of 2016, Morel’s work has been featured in a two man show with sculptor Dan Ostermiller at the Nedra Matteucci Gallery in Santa Fe. Also in 2016, Morel’s paintings have been exclusively featured in New Mexico Magazine’s Annual Artist Calendar published for the NM Department of Tourism. Recently, Chris Morel’s work has also been featured in the June issues of: Southwest Art Magazine, Western Art and Architecture, Western Art Collector and Art and Antiques Magazine, as well as Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine. In 2014, Chris enjoyed a one-man show at the Nedra Matteucci Gallery in Santa Fe where he continues to be represented. He also received the first annual Founders Award of the Maynard Dixon Country invitational Mt. Carmel, Utah as well as the Best of Show, Golden Thunderbird Award for the same show in 2007. Other awards include the Blue Ribbon in Oil Painting at the annual George Phippen Museum Western Art Exhibit in Prescott, AZ, the Taos featured artist and award winner at Art for the Parks, the 2001 Region II Award Winner in Jackson, WY and Plein Air Tucson in 1998. Morel’s work has been featured in several one-man gallery exhibits. He participates in exhibitions at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, OK, Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, NM, Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, NM, Maynard Dixon Country Invitational in Mt. Carmel, UT and the Gilcrease Museum’s American Art in Miniature in Tulsa, OK.

Past Visiting Faculty

Kerry Dunn

Born in 1976, Kerry Dunn began drawing at the early age of five when sitting on his fathers' lap he watched his Dad doodle a sketch. In 1999 he graduated from Ringling School of Art and Design with a major in illustration. Dunn later moved to New York City to attend the famed Art Students League of NY in search of a teacher. During his time there he met Nelson Shanks, an internationally renowned portrait painter. Later that year he was invited by Mr. Shanks to move to Philadelphia to be a part of the new painting school that Shanks was opening. Studio Incamminati, a school of traditional drawing and painting methods. Mr. Dunn now lives and works in Philadelphia and teaches at Studio Incamminati as part of the core faculty and travels the county teaching his own workshops. Many of Mr. Dunn's current works are available at Haynes Gallery.

Sterling Edwards

Sterling began teaching his style of painting in 1993. His workshops are attended by hundreds of people annually in the U.S. and Canada. In 2001 he was featured artist in Watercolor Magic Magazine. In 2007 he was awarded signature member status in the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor and designed a signature set of brushes and a watecolor palette that are marketed internationally. In 2010 he was awarded signature membership status in the esteemed Transparent Watercolor Society of America. He is the author of the North Light book, "Creating Luminous Watercolor Landscapes: A Four Step Process," and is a contributing artist in numerous other publications. His paintings are in private collections throughout the    world. 

Jan Denton

Jan Denton is an award-winning botanical watercolor painter. She has received a number of commissions for her work, and is an active member of the American Society of Botanical Artists. Jan has a BA in Fine Arts from California State University, and a Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration from the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. In 2006 she co-produced “Botanical Treasures of Lewis & Clark,” an exhibit of original works displayed at the Corcoran Gallery. Shortly after moving to Santa Fe from DC in 2007, Jan began teaching classes on “Painting in the Style of O’Keeffe” for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Her many private collectors include Jamie and Phyllis Wyeth. Her work can be viewed online at www.jandenton.com.