Terri Kelly Moyers says she cannot recall a time when she wanted to be anything other than an artist. Since she drew animals as a child, she had consistently directed most of her time and energy toward pursuing that goal, with her early studies at the Alberta College of Art.
She also believes she has been fortunate to be able to study with a number of fine artists, including Robert Lougheed, Bob Kuhn, Kenneth Riley and Howard Terpning. She also has studied with Ned Jacob, Clarence Tillenius and William Moyers, the noted cowboy artist who is her father-in-law.
From 1978 to 1982, Moyers made many trips to the Okanagan Game Farm in Penticton, British Columbia, to paint animals from life with other artists from all over North America. It was there that she met John Moyers in 1979, a fellow artist who is now her husband. After their marriage, they continued to take annual trips to Canada to paint, as well as frequent painting expeditions around the West.
Like her husband, Moyers is an ardent advocate of plein air painting. She is convinced that working out of doors directly from the scene is the finest means of growing as a painter, learning to see and interpret the ever-changing atmosphere and light. She says, "I put things down I think are beautiful and that move me. I want to share what I see with other people and help them have the same pleasure I have. Fifty artists could set up in front of the same scene, and they each would paint different pictures. Each person interprets and edits things in a different way, infusing his or her work with a different quality or emotion."
A profile on Moyers and her husband in Southwest Art said the couple has the same passionate desire to experience renewal in nature that Edward S. Curtis and Joseph Henry Sharp had. Married for more than two decades, they are now "well-schooled mature artist in command of their medium. Their study and understanding of the lessons of the past have allowed them to apply their unique styles to their visions of the inner working of the natural world."
Terri Kelly Moyers has never wanted to do anything in life but paint. Even as a child growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she was constantly drawing, mostly horses. She briefly studied at the Alberta College of Art and also the Mount Royal Community College, but the stylistic emphasis in these two institutions was not of the realist, nature-based school that interested Terri. She continued working independently until she attended a month-long painting workshop taught by the artist, Robert Lougheed, at the Okanagan Game Farm in British Columbia. It was there that she began in earnest painting animals from life as well as rubbing shoulders with and getting advice from artists from all over America. One of those artists receiving instruction from Lougheed was her future husband, John Moyers, of New Mexico.
Another artist who was a valuable influence was the Canadian painter and environmentalist, Clarence Tillenius, who had been a friend and colleague of the painter, Carl Rungius.
Whether painting a portrait or a landscape or a cowgirl riding a horse, Moyer's subjects are things that are beautiful and that move her. "I want to share what I see with other people and help them have the same pleasure I have. Each artist interprets and edits things in a different way, infusing his or her work with a different quality or emotion."
Moyer's favorite subject is the American cowgirl. "I enjoy painting women," she says. "I feel women had a major role to play in the West, and maybe that hasn't been recognized as much as it could be."
Terri Moyers exhibits annually at the Prix de West Show at the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, and at the Masters of the American West Show at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her husband, artist John Moyers and their son, Josh.
She muses about her art: "I trust myself as an artist…." As she continues to grow as a painter, she says that the mechanics become more automatic. "…Then the creative stuff kicks in…. It's all a journey."
Painter Terri Kelly Moyers has lived and worked with a backdrop of rolling ranch land and the distant Sangre de Cristo mountains with husband John Moyers – himself a noted painter – for more than a decade. It is easy to see how this tranquil setting located a less than an hour from Santa Fe, NM, has inspired both painters. Growing up in Canada, Moyers was influenced by both the beautiful landscape and the works of one of North America's renowned landscape and wildlife painters, Carl Rungius, who lived in Banff, Alberta, for many years. Although Moyers was initially drawn to animal subjects, over the years she has grown to love the figure. "I particularly enjoy combining the two", she says. Among the awards Moyers has received for her paintings are the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers' Choice Award and the Frederic Remington Award (shared with Mehl Lawson) at the 1996 Prix de West show at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, OK. In 1997, she made her debut as an invited artist in the Denver Rotary Clubs Artist of America Show, CO.
Terri Kelly Moyers was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is a long-time resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Moyers studied at the Alberta College of Art. She attended the 1978 and 1979 Okanagan Game Farm Workshops taught by Clarence Tillenius and Robert Lougheed and attended by Kenneth Riley, Wayne Wolfe, Harley Browne and John Clymer.
Her honors include the Frederic Remington Award and the Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey Buyer's Choice Award both earned at the 1996 Prix de West Show. Moyer's favorite subject matters are the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
She emphasizes the strength and structure of wildlife and the landscape; her work is influenced by Carl Rungus. In 2004, she was the cover artist for Art of the West magazine, had her work hung in the Forbes Building in New York City, and exhibited at the Masters of the American West Show at the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles.
Terri Kelly Moyers was born in Canada and has been a decade long resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She studied at the Alberta College of Art and attended the 1978 and 1979 Okanagan Game Farm workshop taught by Clarence Tillenius and Robert Lougheed which was also attended by Kenneth Riley, Wayne Wolfe, Harley Browne and John Clymer.
She received the Frederic Remington Award (shared with Mehl Lawson) at the 1996 Prix de West show at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Her favorite subject matter is the Canadian Rocky Mountains. She emphasizes the strength and structure of wildlife and the landscape. Her work is influenced by Carl Rungius.
