|
Rendy Spangenberg 2023 New Braunfels Art League Artist of the Year |
|
Rendy Spangenberg - 2023 Artist of the Year
|
Born to a creative family from Wimberley Texas. Rendy is skilled and trained in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, weaving, stained glass, mosaics and even taxidermy. Drawing from the beautiful colors and shapes found in nature. Her current interest is in creating 3-D works that also have a function in the home. Tables, mirrors, windows, murals, and sculptures encrusted in colorful glass and ceramics bits. Art is her passion and joy! Read Rendy’s interview and full article in the Herald-Zeitung! |
First Runner Up
Will Wehmeyer
"A Game of Chess" by Will Wehmeyer.
|
Will Wehmeyer is an American artist whose prime focus is graphite/pencil and some color pencil. His artwork has been based on many different innovations from portraits, to landscapes, to action, and to the creativity of fantasy and reality. One reason he pursues the art of graphite is that you rarely see large graphite art in the art world today. As he believes if you want to be known for your art do the type of artwork no one ever sees.
|
Will was born in April, 1996. At a young age he had a passion for art. Starting from drawing cartoons to fantasy drawings. He never attended any special art schools, in his early life he taught himself. However, during his high school life at Canyon High School he took advance art classes in drawing media. It was there he learned new skills from his art teacher. During his high school life he would take up drawing large portraits of his friends, afterwards he would give it to them for free because he saw them as practice. After he graduated in 2014 he was left to focus his art on whatever he wanted. He then decided to drop portraits to pursue more action, fantasy, reality and landscapes.
As of November 2016, Will became the youngest artist to be accepted into the New Braunfels Art League and became a very well loved artist in his community. As of 2024 Will Wehmeyer has done well over 200 art pieces since 2014. Has won several awards from New Braunfels Art League four Honorable Mentions, three 3rd place, two 2nd place, two 1st place, and a Best in Show Award in 2019. Will was also a Finalist in the Drawing Category of the International Achievement (IAA) Awards in 2022.
Second Runner Up
Trace Guthrie
“The Great Escape” by Trace Guthrie. Bronze.
|
Trace Guthrie was born in Houston, Texas, where he became a fulltime sculptor and teacher, 51 years ago.
The inspiration started back in the 50’s. He spent his summers in Thorndale, Texas, at his grandparents’ farm-ranch where he watched his uncle create a large drawing with a pencil. He watched with amazement as he rendered in detail an eagle with chicks in a nest.
“I’ll never forget him showing me a fanciful painting out of a book of an eagle carrying away a little girl.” “I was young enough to feel terror when I saw buzzards circling in the sky above that caused me to run screaming as if I had just stepped in a pile of steaming dragon scat. His sons awarded me the big drawing of the eagle with a nest just recently.”
His range of forms span from western wildlife bronze to clay portrait children, abstracts, all the way to humorous, whimsical fantasies, and searching for things that have not been done before.
|
His life size and monumental works include a statue of Sam Houston at SHSU in Huntsville; Oliver Twist in Hermann Park, Houston; Prickly Pair of Boots surrounded by native Texas critters stands at the stadium where they hold the Houston rodeo; Migration, a bronze of 5 geese with a 10-foot wingspan, and a memorial bronze in the Rose Garden at M.D. Anderson Hospital in the Houston Medical Center.
Lately, he created a life size bronze of St. Scholastica for St. Benedict Monastery in Boerne, Texas.
NBAL Artists of the Year
Each year, in December, all the award winning artists from each of the NBAL member shows are invited to submit artworks to a judge for consideration as Artist of the Year. This designation is one of the Art League's highest honors. Award winners from the first year of the honor's inception are listed below.
|
• 2004 Edward Reichert
• 2005 Rita Kirkman • 2006 Bill Brockmeier • 2007 Dianne Reeves • 2008 Ron Watkins • 2009 Jean Crow • 2010 Myra Knapp |
• 2011 Sheila Blakemore
• 2012 Mary K. Hammond • 2013 Patsy Ledbetter Strode • 2014 Pam Pohl • 2015 Sherry Kelley • 2016 Trace Guthrie • 2017 Robbie George |
• 2018 Susan Calafrancesco
• 2019 Mary McIntosh • 2020 Gregory Lambert • 2021 Norman Bean • 2022 Nell Anderson • 2023 Rendy Spagenberg |
