3­‐Day Plein Air Workshop October 12 – 14, 2023 at White Sands area and Historic Villages Tularosa and Bent in Southern New Mexico.
Anita Louise West, Instructor.

BIOGRAPHY

Ms. Anita Louise West’s art is demonstrated through a lifetime of heartfelt painting and teaching. She continues to develop her visual expression. Ms. West’s clarity of concept is key to producing profound artistic work.
Born in Kansas and living in Kansas City, Anita always had a passion for painting. Often as a student in school, she was called upon to draw and paint posters. Anita was a young student with artists at the Kansas City Art Institute. Later on, she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Kansas City Art Institute. Ms. West graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia with a bachelor's degree in Art. She also received a teaching certificate in Art in a graduate program at UMKC. She was an art teacher in the public schools in Kansas, California and Texas.

In addition to her formal mixed media training, Ms. West studied and painted in watermedia for 14 years. Again, she returned to oil painting on location and has mastered her work with the limited palette in oil and pastel. Landscape painting from life taught much about simplifying the subject matter as well as the changing conditions of weather and light outdoors. Figure work began again in 2001 when she pursued portrait and figure painting. The fluency in all mediums and subject matter has extended her abilities and help facilitate her students growth by reaching where they are and opening the next level of growth.

Ms. West has been a professional painter and business owner since 1989. Managing a teaching studio, gallery in Tyler TX gave her a view into the marketing of artwork. Moving to Santa Fe NM in 1993 gave Anita her introduction into the national art world. Both she and her then husband painted and co-taught workshops throughout the United States as well as Spain, France and Canada. Returning to her childhood dream of painting in New York in 2003 Anita studied at the Art Students League with Mary Beth Mackenzie, Daniel Greene, Nelson Shanks and Richard Schmid and the Putney Painters. All of this experience in the studio helped her appreciate and share in the Plein Air painting with growth on her own. Co-author of Painting the Landscape in Pastel, Ms. West is capable of explaining and simplifying the materials and methods of painting in all mediums. Ms. West’s experience and expertise shows through her understanding of clarity.