2017 Annual Members Meeting

2018 Elected Officers and Directors for the PAPNM Board of Directors

View 2018 Election of Officers_Directors.pdf voted in at the 2017 Annual Meeting of Dec 2:

John Meister: President

As a member of many art organizations, John held various Board and volunteer positions, both within the art community and outside of it. He joined Plein Air Painters of New Mexico six years ago but was not very active until he began participating in PAPNM’s Santa Fe Plein Air Festivals a few years ago. This year, John has served as Vice President of PAPNM. During this time he helped form two new regular plein air painting groups in an effort to further the growth of the local plein air community. He hopes to continue spreading the enjoyment of painting outside in open air in 2018, and has the personal goal of promoting networking, friendships and fun for all PAPNM members.

John grew up in Austin, TX and graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Art. He began his career as an artist in Austin, later moving with my wife, Meg, to Albuquerque in 1990. After 23 years in commercial graphic design and illustration, he made the shift toward full-time painting in 2009. He just completed the fourth season of painting weekly with the Plein Air Friends painting group.

Dick Wimberly: Vice President

Dick has been an art teacher, art director and factory manager. All of these positions require the ability to assess the abilities of individuals, to listen to their wants and needs, and to lead people forward with positive encouragement.

During the 2015 SFPAF he became interested in helping the PAPNM board. He started working in the position of Paintouts posting the monthly paintout schedule. This gave him more familiarity with paintout locations and helped him meet more members.

About the beginning of 2017 he took on the position of co-coordinator for the 2017 Spring Paintout and Show in Jemez Springs. Additionally this year he moved away from posting paintouts into the position of Shows and Activities Advocate

Donna Barnhill: Treasurer

Donna has 30 plus years experience in administration/bookkeeping as owner/manager of a family business. She is proficient in Quicken and Quick Books and has previous successful experience as the treasurer for a very large PTA in San Antonio, Texas.  She has been a member of PAPNM since 2014. This will be her first experience volunteering with the group.

Donna is a painter/fine artist born in Western New York and raised in Southeastern New Mexico After raising her family in South Texas for over twenty years, she and her husband returned to New Mexico and now reside permanently in Santa Fe. She is a member of Roswell Fine Arts League, New Mexico Art League and the Ontario (Canada) Plein Air Society.

Ruth Marcanti: Secretary

Ruth has been the Secretary for the Jemez Fine Art Gallery for the past five years. She is a member of the cooperative gallery and she lives in Jemez Springs. She and her husband Jim moved to NM from Chicago eight years ago. In Chicago Ruth taught high school art for 15 years, with a focus on both 2D and 3D lessons. Among other careers, Ruth worked in magazine publishing for six years, beginning as an associate editor and then moved on to editor. She has been member of PAPNM for one year.

Ruth has a Master’s Degree in Art History from the University of Chicago. In addition to undergraduate art classes; she studied extensively as a student-at-large at the School of the Art Institute. It was there that she became interested in painting the landscape. “Moving to the Southwest has been a dream of mine for a long time, Ruth said. “I only need to look out my window to see paintings all around.”

Governance Advocate: Carla Forrest 

As the first elected president of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, Forrest expanded the fledging non-profit’s integrated mission into an artistic community dedicated to preserving and promoting painting en plein air. Carla obtained her Bachelor in studio art with a concentration in three-dimensional design from State University of New York and Master of Science in Teaching Visual Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. She was honored as a Local Treasure by the Albuquerque Arts Business Association.

Events and Activities Advocate: Susan Vigil 

Susan’s life experiences include a varied list. Some highlights are K-12 art teacher for 25 years in Detroit's inner city and Jemez Pueblo; cross country truck driver; adopting 3 siblings 2, 4, and 6 years old; coordinator and founder of Jemez Fine Art Gallery; organizer of local paint outs and teaching adult art classes in Jemez valley. Painting has always been her passion, but she finds painting en plein air particularly exciting. This position as a PAPNM board member will draw upon the many skills gained throughout her life and she is hopeful these will contribute to this important and vital group of artists.

Communications Advocate: Anita Blythe 

Anita has been past Treasurer and Membership Committee chair with the PAPNM BOD. A native of New Mexico, Anita is owner of Purple Sage Gallery in Old Town Albuquerque. She has been involved in the Albuquerque art community for many years.

Membership Advocate: Barbara Coleman

Barbara was on the board of the New Mexico Pastel Society for three years in the capacity of Vice President, President and Past President. She has also had administrative experience running her business and being principle planner for several major city plans in Albuquerque. She has served and chaired committees for exhibitions at the UNM Architecture School.

Barbara lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, Ross, and has three grown children. Barbara and Ross own Hydra Aquatic, an ecological restoration business. Barbara has a Master’s degree in City Planning and Urban Design and was a City Planner/Urban Designer for the City of Albuquerque. She was a Lecturer III in the Dept. of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico where she taught drawing, graphics and architectural design for many years.

She is an award winning associate member of Oil Painters of America (OPA), a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and has exhibited in their national and regional shows.

Past President: Tom Blazier

Tom Blazier, who is president of PAPNM in 2017, will assume the position of past president with voting privileges on the 2018 PAPNM Board of Directors in accordance with the Bylaws.