Our artists (q-z)

LOU ROMAN...
​​Lou creates a mood the viewer can feel a part of through her impressionistic style and sensitive use of color.  She finds the medium of watercolors especially challenging and sees her work as a constantly evolving process.  She began her art career in California and has been an active full-time artist for the last thirty years.

WILLAMINA STRUPAT...
​Willa has painted and taught abstract art for eleven years.  Trained as a traditional painter, she has had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects and shown her art in California, Germany and New York.  Her abstracts have garnered awards and over ten group showings.    Fascinated by nature she believes artists are the historians of our environment, capturing the beauty of our land.  While her training has been writing she has always loved art and found that art can be the cushion that helps heal us and relieve our pain in life.

SUE SHAW...     
​I have a passion for color, texture and various mediums. 
As the creative spirit takes over, the process flows, something evolves and joy fills my heart.

​Magical moments.

​LORI THOMPSON…
I started painting after I retired in 2015 in pursuit of an outlet that would stimulate my creativity in writing and inspire a new dimension in creating plots.    Painting is a great avenue for me to create stories within the canvas.  I am learning a new facet within myself.  Another painting, "China Cove", is the inspiration for my next novel…an artist whose painting puts her life in grave danger.
I am a published novelist of a suspense thriller.  My thriller is now in screenplay to film.  The main character is an artist who studies in France. 

LYLA VEVODA...
Lyla majored in art during high school.  Years later, her daughter gifted Lyla a large stash of studio supplies, which awakened her passion for painting.  Numerous artist workshops sharpened her skills and she has now been a popular artist at the Valley Art Gallery for 6 years.
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Many artists consider painting a difficult process, but Lyla paints to relax.
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​Sandra Whipple
Sandra is an artist who works primarily in watercolor and colored pencils. She is inspired by all nature, the Monterey area and her beloved Sierras. 
Sandra also delights doing in hyperealism with graphite in combination with other media.

JUDY WILLIS...
Judy Willis was first introduced to painting the California landscape when she studied oils under marine artist Bennett Bradbury in 1988.   Her passion is plein air water color painting of local seascapes and landscapes.  She also enjoys creating with pastel and acrylic.   Ms. Willis has participated in the Salinas Steinbeck Museum Art Gallery and the Monterey Bay Artisan Gallery, Pacific Grove.  She currently exhibits in local fund raising venues throughout the peninsula and sells her work at Reflections Elegante Gallery in Willow Glen, San Jose.  To view her work visit: ​https://reflectionselegantegallery.com/artist/judy-willis/

JOAN WELLS...
Joan mostly learned by reading, sketching and collecting books on different artist books - she has many!    "As far as I can remember, my 1st joy was pencil and paper and then colors. I have been into many artistic endeavors such as ceramics, china painting and kiln firing but when I found water colors they became what I loved most, this began at a Senior center. I hope to expand my interest in painting flowers to possibly portraits and architecture painting. and at 85 yrs old I had better hurry." 

​LYLE YOUNG...
​Lyle’s first graphics experience came from High School.  He created 3-D drafting images that were admired to the point that  assignments were note returned.   They made good training aides for others.  He also provided cartoons and art for his school paper.  His next opportunity was during the Korean conflict.  Air crews wanted  art for their airplanes.  In later years  he  assisted with the creation of murals.   Those early interests in art led to him spending the rest of his life doing fine art painting.  He paints mainly for his own interest and the pleasure of others than as a source of income.  

JAN ZEIGLER...
Jan studied art in college and with individual instructors for years.  Her art is in local shows, world-wide private collections and two galleries; Reflections Elegante in Willow Glenn and MPAF Gallery in Monterey.     “Artwork is part of the magic poem of my life.  Backroads and trails beckon me.  For oils and watercolors I paint both plein air and from my own photos).    For papercuts or work with decorative paper I work in my studio.  I   live w ith my wonderful photographer husband, William Zeigler, in Seaside California."