Brushed by Feathers
Katherine Wildermuth
August 6–30, 2026
Artist Reception - Friday, August 7 | 4–6pm
Combine Art Collective is pleased to feature original member Katherine Wildermuth as its featured artist for the month of August.
Inspired by the natural world, Katherine is drawn to pattern, vibrant color, and the endless variety of shapes and forms found in plants, fruit, insects, and birds. Her paintings celebrate these elements with energy and imagination.
Katherine’s creative process is intuitive and evolving. She begins each painting with an incomplete drawing, adds watercolor, then returns to drawing as the composition develops. This back-and-forth approach allows the work to grow organically and keeps each painting fresh and engaging.
Katherine lives and paints in Walla Walla.
After a long career teaching seventh and eighth-grade art, she began focusing on watercolor as her primary medium. Teaching young artists required proficiency in a wide variety of media and styles, as well as strong organizational and management skills. As a result, she says, “I feel I can make just about anything.”
Ana V. Ramirez began her art journey as a photographer, but her desire to make something with her hands led her to create mixed media collages using her photos, vintage and handmade papers, drawings, and other materials. Assembling physical objects on paper is an exciting new phase in Ana’s art practice.
The current state of the housing market, something she feels very strongly about, has been a source of inspiration for her work. Ana creates her patchwork houses using architectural elements and the recognizable imagery of a house: the angled roof, bricks and siding, rectangular windows, curtains inside the windows, and so on.
But doors rarely appear on her houses. Doors are a way in, and, as a metaphor for the times, these houses are not meant to be entered. The viewer stands outside and only gets a glimpse inside.
Darin Yates
Darin Yates is best known for his colorful horses, animals, and Native American figurative work, blending realism with vivid backgrounds in acrylic on canvas. He grew up in Alaska, painting side by side with his mother, an elementary school teacher and artist. Encouraged by those around him, he pursued art after high school and went on to attend the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, from 1992 to 1995, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration.
Darin draws inspiration from photography trips to the Southwest, especially Sedona and Arizona. He hikes through canyons and along trails, then returns to his studio to revisit the images he captured. “The magic of painting comes when I sit down at the easel and imagine the piece in my head with bright colors and loose brushstrokes. I’ve been making art my whole life, and nothing makes me happier than moving someone through my work.”
Past Exhibitions
