Meet our October Artists
Seven artists will join us for the month of October at the Gallery sponsored by the Midway Art Association, in Midway, UT. The Gallery is in the Town Hall in space 120B. It is part of the Association’s mission to give our members an outlet to show their art to the public, whether they are established artists or just getting started in their practice.
The Gallery is open Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. It is also open by appointment. An open house will be held on Saturday, October 4, from 12 to 5 p.m. to view the art and meet some of the artists. Light refreshments will be served.
Here are some interesting facts about our seven new artists:
Meli Calkins
Born in Glendale, California, Meli Calkins has been painting for the past 55 plus years. Meli’s mother was a commercial artist and taught Meli how to observe what she saw in her world and would interpret it with drawings and paintings on paper and canvas. While pursuing a bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental at California State University, Northridge, Meli was able to squeeze a few fine art classes in her busy schedule raising a family, working in the aerospace industry and participating in the local art scene in Southern California.
Meli loves to interpret the landscapes around her. While most of her paintings are of landscapes and seascapes, she also enjoys creating paintings with horses, koi fish, still-life, and abstracts.
After spending over 30 years in the aerospace industry Meli and her husband moved from Southern California to Pleasant Grove Utah in 2017. Meli is now pursuing new places in Utah and elsewhere to find and paint with soft pastel and oils. Website: https://www.melicalkins.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meli.calkins
Instagram: https://instagram.com/melicalkinsfineart
Pamela Flynn
Pamela was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. She started painting murals at the age of 10 when her mother consented to let her paint on the walls of her bedroom. Pamela has painted murals for the Heber City Police Department Justice Building, Midway City Town Hall, Rocky Mountain Middle School, Heber Valley Railroad, Wasatch High School, Soldier Hollow Charter School, along with many other businesses and private homes in Wasatch and Summit counties. Animals are her favorite subject, and she paints pet portraits regularly. She also loves portraiture and landscapes. Working with Linda Curley’s team on temple murals has been an incredible blessing. Pamela has 4 children and 7 grandchildren. She currently resides in the beautiful mountains above Midway, Utah with John, her eternal companion. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelaflynnartwork Instagram: https://instagram.com/pamelaflynnartwork
Ruby Jensen
Painting mainly in oil, Ruby also enjoys watercolor and silk painting. Taking inspiration from the beauty around her, she creates works from nature. Ruby considers it a blessing to have the time and resources to pursue her joy of painting. Grateful to live in the Heber Valley, with its majestic mountains, barns, historic homes, and animals, she has much beauty to draw from. Painting the landscape of rural Utah is her passion, keeping the history of the area alive on canvas.
Linda O'Donnell
Linda grew up in the Hudson Valley in New York State where she was exposed to an art environment influenced by her parents. Her love of art and design grew, and she graduated from Cornell University’s School of Design and Environmental Analysis and had a full and exciting career for 35 years in both private and government industry designing commercial products, interiors, and human factors analysis.
Retiring in 2013, she and her husband moved to Utah and the beautiful
Wasatch Back Mountains where they enjoy skiing, hiking, fishing, camping,
traveling, and plein air.
She enjoys all art forms, painting in watercolor, acrylics, oils, and continuously seeks to both refine and explore new art expression. She is so grateful for everything in life and all the wonderful people, places, and adventures. She lives by some wonderful thoughts, “Take in everything around you, use all your senses and see the colors, smell, listen, and close your eyes and feel your world, never take anything for granted and always look forward to what is next, reach of the stars!”
Megan Rieker
Megan Rieker grew up in Maryland in a family of 8. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general fine arts and a master’s degree in teaching art from Maryland Institute, College of Art. Through the military her family has been stationed in Upstate NY, Germany, Italy, Korea, Colorado Springs CO, Goodyear AZ, Washington DC and moved to Pleasant Grove Utah in 2022.
Megan enjoys painting landscapes as a release from the studio and portraiture. There is something about the beauty of nature that heals and calms the soul. Her paintings have been featured in museums across the country, magazines, videos and book covers. She is now working on paintings from her recent trip to Europe as well as mosaics of some of her recent works using Italian Smalti.
Noemi Robles
Noemi is a landscape painter, living in Roy, UT. She taught elementary school for over 15 years and is now blessed to be focusing on her family and art career. Most of her work depicts local Utah landscapes. Noemi was raised in Utah since she was 6 years old. As a young newlywed, she moved to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where her husband was stationed. It was then that she took her first painting classes and fell in love with painting. It was also during this time that she really started to appreciate the beauty of nature and longed to see the beautiful Rockies again. Although she enjoys painting a variety of subjects, her favorite things to explore and paint are still mountains. She is also currently working on a series of nativity and Christmas pieces to display in the gallery. More about Noemi can be found at www.noemiroblesart.com
Kat Webster
Kat is a Utah native who loves art and interior design. All of Kat's pieces are painted with a desire to create a unique, meaningful, and artistic home or space. Kat received her bachelor’s in art from BYU-Hawaii where she studied for 5 years focusing on many art forms, but mainly sculpture, ceramics, and pottery. The last 5 years living in her cabin in Midway, Kat was inspired to paint more by all the beautiful wild animals, plants, and flowers she could see and experience right out her front door. Kat loves Christian art and has especially enjoyed painting locations from the life of Christ. Kat also loves to paint the mountains of the Wasatch and desert scenes of southern Utah inspired by her time spent skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and mountain biking.
