Standard Fine Art Judge: PEGGY IMMEL
Peggy Immel’s paintings reflect a deep reverence for the natural world and a lifelong connection to the distinctive landscape of the American Southwest. Based in Taos, New Mexico, she is known for capturing the dramatic light, expansive vistas, and quiet poetry of the high desert. Drawing from direct observation, memory, and emotional response, her work conveys a strong sense of place offering viewers both the immediacy of the moment and the timelessness of the land.
Her award-winning landscapes have been featured in numerous national exhibitions and are regularly highlighted in leading art publications including Fine Art Connoisseur, Southwest Art, Plein Air Magazine, Art of the West, and Santa Fean.
Immel studied at Arizona State University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the DeCordova Museum School, and the Silvermine Arts Center. She is a Master Signature Member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, and a Signature Member of both Plein Air Artists Colorado and American Women Artists.
She is represented by Wilder Nightingale Fine Art in Taos, New Mexico, and Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Durango, Colorado.
Standard Fine Art Jurors
Annie Chirieleison
Annie Chirieleison’s journey as an artist began at age 7 when her parents were called to her elementary school to meet with an art critic and a child psychologist. Her parents were informed she was gifted in art and asked to borrow her paintings for the summer for a teacher’s convention in Los Angeles where they were having a workshop on how to detect art talent at an early age. From that point forward Annie’s parents made sure she never lacked art supplies. By age 15 she received two Best of Show Awards. Art was a natural way of life for her and spilled off the edge of the canvas and paper into every aspect of her life. She is part self taught and has studied formal portraiture with Juan Pena in California and studied with Albert Handell in New Mexico as well as a workshop facilitator for Albert Handell in the Jemez Springs area.
“I love the magical process of creating and my art reflects the places I have been, moments which cause me to pause for reflection and the beautiful Land of Enchantment where I live. Light, shadow and color inspire me. I love our big sky and its many variations, our magical mountains, rock formations and how the past is always reflected in the present. Inspiration lives in New Mexico.”
I have a fondness of paper and the mediums of both pastel and watercolor allows me to use many types of paper surfaces. Pastel can be used in many different ways which satisfies the mad scientist in me who likes experimentation. Watercolor has a mind and spirit of its own and it’s unforgiving nature is a challenge that I cannot resist.”
Annie is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of New Mexico and has won the International Association of Pastel Societies Founders Award.
Annie is a Signature Member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society and has won awards at the NMWS Spring Show and is in the current 57th Issue of The Art of Watercolour magazine published in France and features international watercolor artists.
Annie has had several paintings rented by the Film Industry for television and movies through Weems Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Annie lives in New Mexico with her husband, Joe, her black lab, Mercy and her two kitties, Big Foot and Catfish.
Dave Cook
Dave Cook, an artist and architect, explores the beauty of the created world through vivid, colorful shape-dominated paintings. His approach to water media painting is varied and explorative; he paints landscapes often with references to buildings and structures as a natural outgrowth of his architectural background. HIs cityscapes, portraits and animal paintings are expressive studies with dramatic light interplay. The techniques he employs are often spontaneous with energy and emotion. He paints somewhere between realism and abstraction, using water media, often using various textures, strokes and effects.
He graduated from Texas Tech University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Architecture, where he was introduced to watercolor painting as a means of communicating design ideas. He is primarily a self-taught artist, although he has learned from many well-known teachers. He teaches regularly at the NM Arts League, and has taught various workshops.
He is a signature member of the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies and New Mexico Watercolor Society. He has received awards in numerous exhibitions including Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, New Mexico Watercolor Society, the Visual Arts Council Fine Arts Show, Expo NM Fine Arts Shows, NM Master Works exhibitions and the AIA Architect as an Artist show. He has been juried into the Albuquerque Museum Foundation ArtsThrive exhibition and NM Arts and Crafts.
dcookart.com
P.K. Williams
P.K. Williams is a mixed media artist working and residing in Placitas.
She went to the University of Texas at El Paso and received a master’s degree in Elementary Education. She began her career in art in 2012 after she and her husband relocated to Albuquerque. She has shown her work in three different galleries in Albuquerque, one of which she co-directed. Her most recent solo exhibition was titled, Roots to Routes and shown at the Open Space Visitor Center in Albuquerque. (October thru December 2025)
P.K. has won awards locally, in Colorado, in California and in Texas. Most recently she won the Carolann Waterson award with the Collage Artists of America. At the end of February 2020, she had her work featured on the cover of the local Alibi publication to celebrate Women’s Month. She is a member of New Mexico Women in the Arts, the Rio Grande Art Association, the Collage Artists of America, the National Collage Society, and a signature member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society.
You can view her work on her website; https://pkwfineart.com .
P.K. Williams, Statement
I have a multi-faceted art practice in which I use mixed media to explore new combinations of a variety of processes. I enjoy the challenge of marrying several oddments to create a pleasing composition which has been unified into a completely new form.
While I deeply appreciate and admire the technical skill it takes to create representational work; it is not my personal goal. I prefer the exciting, yet arduous task of creating something brand new and my hope is that people will connect to what I have created.
Mini Fine Art Judge: 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. Particularly of interest to Ruth were the techniques used for “trompe l’oiel” — a term meaning “to fool the eye” with photographic realism.
An art major in college, Ruth had a successful career as a graphic designer for 30+ years in her adopted state of New Mexico where she has lived since 1980. In addition, she taught Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing for several years at the Art Center College (headquartered in Tucson, AZ). Her love of teaching will always be important and rewarding: she now teaches her artistic grandchildren, and was most recently on the Faculty of the New Mexico Art League for 6.5 years, teaching the techniques of layered transparent watercolor, along with the unique but ancient method of painting “en grisaille” — a method she learned as a teen working in oils, which she has carried over to watercolor. She has enjoyed every moment of her time as an instructor, but found it necessary to “hang up her teaching hat” in late 2024 in order to illustrate her younger sister’s children’s book, which was accomplished in June of 2025. She is now working on all the illustrations and poems for her own children’s book, with a goal of publishing in early ’26. In addition, she has also had six of her portraits featured in an article about her technique in the French version of the “Art of Watercolour” magazine, out of Paris, France. (Issue #61, June 2024.)
Ruth prefers to paint still-life and portraiture. She has painted in various mediums since childhood, concentrating on oils, but almost completely transitioning to watercolor in 2009, finding it to be an exciting, fast medium in which to work — where the water is a moving vehicle carrying the pigment into unexpected places. She is now learning techniques for working in Pastel, so stay tuned!
The beautiful subject matter offered by the Southwest, in New Mexico’s “Land of Enchantment” has given Ruth much inspiration through the years, although she continues to enjoy portraiture (humans and animals!) more than anything else. She finds the human face to be beautiful beyond compare, discovering the Creator and “Master Artist” living in every pair of eyes.
• NMWS Signature Member – Master Painter ‘24
• WFWS Signature Member – Master Painter ‘25
• Recent NMAL Faculty Member (on hiatus)
Mini Fine Art Jurors
Carmen Badeau
Born in El Paso, TX, I am now living and working in Albuquerque, NM. As an artist I want to create art that makes people smile, remember, inspire and ask the hard questions. My art is reflective of who I am, as well as who and what I project out into the world. I want to create something pleasant for the eye to see and for the mind to contemplate.
The central focus of these paintings is the windows, how they capture light and color or distort reflections. What do we see in windows or is there something to be seen in them? What is it that we don’t see? Windows can be mysterious, such as old, wavy, smudgy & vintage windows, or clear shop windows. They can be mundane or sublime. Windows are fragile, yet strong. Windows can have a story to tell us if we observe them. Is someone peering at the viewer from behind the glass? Or am I the one peering out onto the landscape? I try to capture all of that in these paintings featuring windows.
Though I have worked, and continue to work, in many mediums, oil paint is my primary medium as I love the versatility and blending ability of oil paints. I enjoy painting and drawing various subjects. I have my art in collections throughout the US as well as in Spain and Germany.
Linda Krumel
Linda grew up in western Colorado, where she has many memories that she paints from working with grandparents: ranching, along with lots of horseback riding, and hiking in the mountains. Now living in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico she continues to be inspired by the mountains and outdoors.
Linda works mostly in watercolor, and occasionally acrylic and oil paintings. She is a Signature Artist with New Mexico Watercolor Society (NMWS), a member of the New Mexico Art League, and recently became a member of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico (PAPNM)
From 1970-1973, Linda studied under Don Radovich and received a B.A. in Art at Western State College of Colorado, (now Western Colorado University). Linda also has studied under Carol Carpenter and Charles (Bud) Edmondson and taken various New Mexico Watercolor Society workshops (e.g. Tony Couch, Frank Eber, Keiko Tanabe, Dale Laitinen).
Linda’s Website is Sagecornerpaint.com
Mick Leo
Mick has nurtured an interest in art since childhood, exploring black and white darkroom photography in college. In the mid 1990’s he independently pursued watercolor, acrylic, and mixed watermedia/collage image making. In addition to self-study, he has participated in many focused workshops in watermedia and mixed media over the past twenty nine years. Mick has studied under Steve Quiller, Ruth Block, Charles (Bud) Edmondson, and Dorothy Vorhees, all of whom inspire his work. He is especially indebted to the teaching, mentoring, and friendship of Don Chase (deceased) and Donna Hanna-Chase (California artists who lived in New Mexico during the 1990’s).
Exhibiting in various juried shows and charity auctions over the past 29 years, Mick has participated in the MasterWorks of NM Miniature Arts Division since 2000. Miniature art has attracted him as a challenge to create an evocative statement in a limited space. He continues to paint standard scale works in watercolor and acrylic, while exploring the infinite possibilities of mixed media, and assemblage. His works have earned him multiple awards in juried shows since 2000, including NMWS exhibitions, RGAA’s Encantada, and Masterworks of NM.
Mick is a signature member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society (NMWS), a member of the Rio Grande Art Association (RGAA), the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media (SLMM), and the ABQ Wet Brush Critique Group. His work appears in several books published by the SLMM, and in the UNM School of Medicine publication Medical Muse (Summer 2022).
Artist’s Statement:
For me image making is an exploration, inspired by the natural environment, the human figure, archetypes, and pure imagination in many cases. I work largely from memory and intuition, in a spontaneous and improvisational manner. In this way of working, objective and nonobjective art exist as a continuum, rather than as isolated categories of art making. It is the exploration and journey into the process of creativity that is so gratifying.
All earnings from sales of Mick’s work are donated 100 % to the UNM Foundation, the Mitzie R. Begay Four Corners Scholarship Fund, an endowed scholarship, providing grants to American Indian students attending UNM in the areas of social work and health care professions.