Sonya has been a participant in the Prix de West western art show for the past 12 years. This national invitational show is held at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. She has been a participant in the Masters of the American West invitational western art show at the Autry Center in Los Angeles, California for the past 8 years. In 2004 her work was exhibited by invitation at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas, making her one of the first women to show at the museum. She was subsequently invited to three other major shows there.
Two of her paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Pearce Western Art Museum at Navarro College, Corsicana, Texas. One of her paintings is now part of the permanent collection of the Gilcrease Museum, purchased during the Rendezvous Show (April to June 2006) where she was the featured artist in April 2006.
In February of 2008, she was awarded the Autry National Center Award for Watercolor at the Masters of the American West Exhibition and sale.
For 20 years Sonya worked primarily in watercolor, taking up painting in oil as well about 7 years ago. She now produces her art in both mediums saying, "the subject often tells me which medium to chose."
Sonya Terpening is a watercolorist known for her works in a realist style.
The subjects of her 'quiet stories' vary from gardening scenes, to church missions, to almost any phase of everyday life. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across America, and at the Prix de West Invitationals.
Terpening lives in Grapevine, Texas, where she also maintains a studio.
Source:
Prix de West Catalogue
Oklahoma native Sonya Terpening is known for her scenes in watercolor. Terpening strives to show the beauty in everyday people and activities, gathering inspiration from the people and places that surround her.
Terpening's work has been exhibited at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Philbrook Art Museum, the Thomas Gilcrease Museum, the Oklahoma Museum of Art, the C.M. Russell Museum, and the Albuquerque Museum of Art.
She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the Southwestern Watercolor Society. Terpening has also been featured in Southwest Art and Art of the West magazines.
Sonya Terpening is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the Southwestern Watercolor Society. Her work has been included in a number of national exhibitions including the Prix de West Invitational, Masters of the American West, Artists of America and the American Art in Miniature Show at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Featured in Art of the West and Southwest Art magazines, Terpening was commissioned to do a painting for permanent display in the State Capitol in Oklahoma. Her paintings illustrate the covers of the books, Pawnee Pride and The History of Washington County.
