Artist Focus: Megan Wimberley

Contemporary Western artist Megan Wimberley, creates vibrant paintings shaped by her lived experience of the American West. Horses were her first love, and she grew up riding and training under skilled horsemen and women. Cowboys and cowgirls were not distant symbols, but people she knew and worked alongside, an experience that continues to inform her work. As Wimberley notes, “That way of life lives in my body and memory, and the animals and people of the West are the subjects that press outward through my work.”

Cowgirl, acrylic, 48 x 24 in.

Her work centers on animals, the horse-human relationship and the people who continue to shape Western life today. Time spent on ranches and in nature photographing wildlife allows her to study movement, behavior and individuality, which she translates through an intuitive painting process. Rather than relying on a traditional palette, Wimberley uses bold color and design to bring energy and presence to familiar subjects, often including members of her own family alongside wildlife, cattle and horses.

Cowgirl II: Securing a Win, acrylic, 36 x 36 in.

Wimberley is also passionate about bringing the authentic stories of Western women to the forefront. She is the founder of Cowgirl Artists of America and Women’s Work, a museum exhibition that highlights the contributions of women through Western art. Through both her paintings and her leadership, she aims to honor and bring a more complete story of the American West into view. —