JoAnn Peralta

A former illustrator, and now exclusively fine artist, painter, and author, JoAnn Peralta crossed over into fine art in 2004. Since then, she has captured Southwestern and historical figures such as Western cowboys and Native Americans, as well as Spanish and Mexican subjects. Peralta continues to explore the diverse and interesting facets of American life through her drawings and oil paintings.

Peralta attended ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she was awarded a full-time scholarship on entrance due to her portfolio. Her work has been featured in such publications as Art Business News, Art of the West, Cowboys & Indians, Fine Art Connoisseur, International Art magazine, International Artist, Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, and Western Art Collector, which had a feature article about her in its February 2022 issue. An interview for the American Art Collective podcast in 2022 received a top-20 notable podcast viewership award.

Her work has been collected by many Fortune 500 and Forbes collectors, as well as entertainment industry personalities, and one of the largest landowner families on the Southwestern American landscape. Her favorite story is when a farm worker came up to her during a show and said his family owned one of her early paintings. It depicted a worker picking grapes in the fields in California, which is how Peralta’s grandmother earned her living when she became an American citizen.

In summer 2020, Spectrum News 1 interviewed her in her studio for a short online video highlighting her Western historical painting “Peace in the Valley” Treaty Between the Kitchens’ Ranch and Cochise, Tucson, 1873, which sold for $40,000 at the 2020 Masters of the American West Art Exhibition and Sale.

Peralta has participated in Masters since 2010 and won the Artist’s Choice Award for her painting Spanish Shawl ll in 2019, up to then only the second woman to win this award. She has had successful shows at the annual Small Works, Great Wonders show at the Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Her first book, Math Face, received excellent reviews and is in both the Library of Congress and a special program for educational purposes that the Congressional Library requested. She has completed her documentary, Spanish Americans: The Fine Art of JoAnn Peralta, and her works can be found through social media on Instagram and Facebook as well as her website.

JoAnn Peralta is represented by J Sabry Fine Art, Santa Clarita, California; J Watson Fine Art, Van Nuys, California, and Trailside Galleries–online.