Sonya Terpening "San Jose Mission"
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- Sonya Terpening
- Born 1953
- Texas / Oklahoma Artist
- Image Size: 24 x 30
- Frame Size: 33 x 39
- Medium: Oil
- 2003
- "San Jose Mission"
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Details
Sonya Terpening
graduated high school and lived many years in Oklahoma. She feels that
living in Oklahoma and Texas is living with the fable of the west.
Both states are so rich in history and legend that as an artist she
cannot help but seek it out and try to share it with others.
Sonya never made a great decision to become an artist; she just
always knew that is what she wanted to be. Sonya studied with
professional artists from the time she was in junior high school.
She received an art degree at Oklahoma State University.
She continued to refine her work by studying with and knowing some of the
great American artists such as Richard Schmid, Bettina Steinke, Donald
Teague and Lowell Ellsworth Smith.
Sonya has been painting professionally for almost 30 years. Most of
those years she painted exclusively in watercolor. A number of years
ago Sonya began painting with oils again and now masters both mediums.
Sonya Terpening's art is about sharing the great and fascinating
world around her. "When something moves me, be it a story or a
scene, I want to express it in color and light so that the viewer can
share the feeling. There is nothing more beautiful than this great
land and the people living in it. I am drawn not only to the American
west as it exists today but also to its history. There is something
about the past that we all share that makes us better for remembering
it. I think art touches the soul and teaches in ways words cannot."
Sonya has been an
invited artist to the “Prix de West Invitational” at the National
Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for twenty four years and to the
Masters of the American West at the Autry Museum for twelve years. In
2008 Sonya was awarded the Gold medal in Watercolor at the Masters
of the American West Show. She was a featured artist at the 2006
Rendezvous at the Gilcrease Museum. She is the 2014 recipient of the
National D.A.R. “Women in the Arts Recognition Award.”
In 2010,
she was the inaugural recipient of the “Smelser-Vallion Visiting
Artist for the Doel Reed Center for the Arts" award from Oklahoma
State University. Articles about Sonya's art have appeared in "Western Art Collector", "Art of
the West", Southwest Art" and "Persimmon Hill" magazines.
Sonya Terpening's paintings are in the permanent collection of:
The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Oklahoma
The Forbes Collection, New York, New York
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Fort Worth, Texas
Oklahoma State University, Edmon
Low Library, Stillwater, OK
State of Oklahoma - Capitol Building
Museum of the American Railroad, Frisco, TX
The Pearce Museum, Corsicana, Texas
Great Western Life, Denver, Colorado
Pawnee Historical Museum, Pawnee, Oklahoma -
Biography
Sonya Terpening Born 1953
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.
