Joe Anna Arnett ~ A Tribute Exhibition

“We just have to be ready to make the jump, accept the challenge, and enjoy the journey.” ~Joe Anna Arnett

Art With Purpose presents the estate collection of the remaining paintings by plein air painter Joe Anna Arnett (1950–2024), offering collectors a rare opportunity to acquire works from an artist whose quiet, luminous compositions reflected a profound reverence for life, faith, and beauty. Created over decades of devoted practice, these paintings represent the final available pieces of her artistic legacy.

Details at a Glance:
Art with Purpose: A Tribute to Joe Anna Arnett
McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
April 15-29, 2026
Reception: April 17

Some of Joe Anna’s career highlights included participating in the prestigious Artists of America show in Denver for 11 years, the Prix de West at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for 14 years, and being represented by the prestigious Zaplin Lampert Gallery in Santa Fe for over three decades. Joe Anna is now represented at McLarry Fine Art where there is currently a special exhibit of her masterpieces.

In 1997, she became a Master Artist of the Artists in America Show at the Denver Historical Society Museum. She also exhibited at museums around the country and in 2006 was honored by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma as one of their featured artists in the Rendezvous exhibition. Joe Anna was a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America, Signature member of Laguna Plein Air Painters and Master Signature member of Plein Air Artists Colorado, a master signature member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and an elected member of The Salmagundi Club. Joe Anna participated in Plein Air Maui, Plein Air Southwest, En Plein Air Texas, Paint Grand Traverse, and En Plein Air Masters in France.

Joe Anna wrote articles for many magazines and was the author of Painting with Passion, The Best of Flower Painting, I and II and Sketchbook Confidential II. Her still life painting book, Painting Sumptuous Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers in Oil, led to invitations to teach workshops all over the United States and beyond. She once said, “If there is a passport in art, I think it must be painting en plein air. You’re in business anywhere you can put your easel.”

A reception celebrating Joe Anna’s life and work will welcome collectors and community members, with Joe Anna’s sisters in attendance along with representatives from World Hope International, the humanitarian organization her family has supported in celebration of her life. In tribute to Joe Anna’s generous spirit, a portion of all proceeds will benefit World Hope International.

Joe Anna loved her garden; everything grown was for painting. She called the antique roses, “the girls.” She also painted sunflowers and peonies year after year. The thing she may have enjoyed most was sharing her garden with other painters, friends, and neighbors.

Works are thoughtfully priced, and reasonable offers will be considered in the spirit of placing her art with appreciative collectors. Each acquisition not only preserves Joe Anna’s work for future generations but also extends the compassion and purpose that guided both her art and her life.

For more information, visit mclarryfineart.com or call (505) 988-1161.

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Announcement prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today