Childhood summers on her family’s roundup wagon gave Sonja (Smith) Caywood ample time to study the animals that inspire much of her imagery.  Ranching is in her blood and inspires not only an appreciation for her subject matter and agricultural lifestyles, but also her work ethic.  Using oils, she renders animals in portrait situations, personifying them in a manner sometimes confrontational, but often as a simple glimpse into a candid, casual, relatable moment.  

“I constantly back up as I paint, so that painterly strokes of oil colors read realistically from a distance but are fun and surprising close-up.  I love it when viewers approach a painting that first appears life-like, but closer, they see it’s an arrangement of shapes, colors, and values.   I paint from my heart in joyful appreciation of God’s creation around me.  For someone without a formal art education, I’m grateful to make a living doing what I love and thankful that my art hangs in collections across the US and 12 foreign countries.  A huge thanks to DCWM and everyone who works to make this show possible!” 

Caywood paints from her studio in Dayton, WY, where she and her husband Terry live with their small posse of pets.