Deborah Berniklau hails from New Mexico and is Western girl through and through. She graduated with a BFA from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. She worked as an illustrator painting commissions for Disney, Warner Brothers, NASA/JPL and several advertising agencies throughout the U.S. She has studied with Master artists, Burne Hogarth, Huihan Liu, Carolyn Anderson, Daniel Gerhartz, and Jeffrey Watts. Berniklau's style combines storytelling with character and emotion in order to capture the essence of the America’s West, yesteryear and today. Berniklau uses her Andalusian horse, Cowboy and Native American Models, for accurate representations that breathe life into her paintings. Berniklau has been published in editorials and features in Western Art and Architecture , Southwest Art and Western Art Collector magazines. She is a proud member of both Oil Painters of America and the Portrait Society of America. She won the gold a medal for Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition. Berniklau's work has been exhibited and collected throughout the World. Berniklau is represented at Settlers West Galleries in Tucson, Arizona and The West Lives On Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She currently lives in Kalispell, Montana.