Packed Fest

Entering its 3rd year, the Festival of the Arts will be taking place on June 30 and July 1 at the Platte Valley Community Center (PVCC) courtesy of local businesswoman Laura Morrow. The show will highlight local artists as well as artists throughout the state of Wyoming and the Western United States. Locals and visitors to the Upper North Platte River Valley are encouraged to attend the event. This year the show will include artists ranging from photography to bronze and more.

Dan Andrews

Wildlife artist Dan Andrews comes from nearby Colorado and was part of the 2017 Festival of the Arts. Andrews credits his detailed depiction of wildlife to the hours he spends in the field observing them.

Barrie Lynn Bryant and AB Word

Bryant and Word originally hail from Arkansas, but have called Kirby, Wyo. home for 20 years. Bryant constructs elaborate frames for Word’s more fantastical themes.

Jimmy Devine

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Jimmy Devine graduated from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont. and became involved in professional art immediately following his graduation. Devine specializes in western art.

Kelly D Donovan

Donovan grew up in western Colorado and has been interested in art from a very early age and has immersed himself in cowboy art. Donovan has had art featured in the Western Horseman Magazine as well as American Cowboy Magazine and Cowboys and Indians Magazine. He currently lives in Corrine, Utah.

Dede Farrar

Boasting a Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Dakota, Farrar was born in Nebraska but now calls the Black Hills home. Farrar works primarily with acrylic paints and mixed media, but has worked with watercolors in the past as well.

Lynette Fransen

Originally from South Dakota, Fransen now calls Casper, Wyo. home. Fransen works with both acrylic paints and pastel as she crafts her realistic paintings.

Jim Gilmore

Another Colorado artist, Gilmore uses his art to share his love and respect for nature and the cowboy lifestyle with others. Gilmore has been a full time sculptor for over 20 years.

Karen Henneck

Henneck comes from Casper, Wyo. and is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, a member of the Pastel Society of Colorado and ART321 in her hometown of Casper.

Jan Hodson

Hodson works in oils employing a palette knife technique, often focusing on western landscapes with a special interest in trees and the desert.

Ron Holyfield

Holyfield has spent every year since 1994 as an artist-in-residence at a historic resort in Black Hills, SD with his wife, Kay Williams. Holyfield currently lives near the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and works with acrylic paints.

Rick Jackson

Jackson spent four years in the Navy before attending a technical college for woodworking followed by a career in the wood products industry. Jackson now creates pieces that combine both his woodworking and framing experience.

Moss Kent

Though originally from Texas, Kent now lives in Wyoming with his wife and sons. Kent was first exposed to art when his sister, Lyn Kent Jones, was the first member of the family to follow a career in the art. It wasn’t until several years later that Kent followed his own path into the arts.

Janice Anderson Knapp

Knapp is a paint and fiber artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Drake Universty and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas. Knapp also studied for 11 years with Wyoming artist Virginia Frederick Large. A long-time summer resident of the state, Knapp enjoys painting scenes of the Snowy Range and the North Platte Valley.

Joy Koewn

Koewn grew up in Missouri and holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in biology from Emporia State Universty. Her love for nature has inspired her to make conservation the focus of her art.

Lori Koster

Koster resides in Saratoga, Wyo. which inspires much of her painting and sculpting. Koster holds a fine art degree.

James Moore

Moore spent 15 years as an art teacher for both middle and high school students before deciding to make the jump to full time artist. Working with bronze, Moore lives in Eaton, Colo.

Tom Mulhern

Mulhern developed a love for fly fishing over 30 years ago which has since inspired him to attempt to capture the beauty of fish using wood.

Mary Lou Pape

Originally from Kansas, Pape now calls Colorado home. Traveling to national parks, rodeos and nature preserves have provided plenty of inspiration for Pape’s paintings.

Linda Tuma Robertson

Winning a blue ribbon in Kindergarten set Robertson on her path to pursue art as a career. After being introduced to oil paints at the age of nine, they quickly became her favorite medium which she uses to fill her canvas with paintings of big skies filled with sunrises and sunsets.

Barbara Schaffner

Located in Wheatland, Wyo., Schaffner lives in the shadow of Laramie Peak, which sits at the east end of the Medicine Bow Range. She works with watercolor as well as oil, pastel and bronze to highlight the grand Wyoming landscape and wildlife.

Sierra Smith

A local artists Smith works mostly with mixed-media but has experience with watercolors, acrylics and pen and ink drawings. Smith often uses rusted barbed wire and farm tools to work with, but will use anything that she believes reflects the Wyoming lifestyle.

Dustin Stephenson

Stephenson is a native Wyomingite and resides in the hamlet of Ten Sleep, Wyo. where he teaches art to K-12 students. As an art teacher, Stephenson finds himself playing with various mediums, but Raku Pottery with an added Wyoming flair is his true passion.

D Michael Thomas

Another Wyoming native, Thomas has been sculpting for over 30 years. Growing up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming led to Thomas to possess a love of the west. After graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1977, Thomas has been commissioned to complete several monuments including one depicting both sides of the Johnson County Cattle War.

Kay Williams

Along with husband Roy Holyfield, Williams has spent many years as an artist-in-residence at a resort the South Dakota Black Hills. Williams paints strictly with oils and employs the techniques of the old masters.

Elizabeth Wood

The years of working at the Saratoga Sun led Wood to develop her photography skills. Originally from Iowa, Wood does not take the beauty of Wyoming for granted and highlights it in her photography.

Jerry Wood

Wood has been carving for over 30 years and works with several types of stone, from alabaster to marble and limestone to soapstone. He doesn’t start with a predetermined idea, but works with the stone to determine what shape it will take as he carves.

Also featured at this year’s Festival of the Arts will be an original painting by Jason Borbet, also known as Borbay, a nationally recognized artist who traveled through Wyoming and stopped in Saratoga as part of a trip to provide a proof-of-concept for a “Paint Wyoming” tour currently being discussed with the Wyoming Office of Tourism.

An opening gala will take place from 6 - 8 p.m. on June 29 at the PVCC where attendees will be able to meet and talk with the artists. The art show will then be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 30 and July 1.