"I began painting in oil twenty-five years ago. I took a watercolor class twelve years ago and was 'hooked'. Since that time, I haven't wanted to put my brush down. Watercolor can be your best friend or your worst enemy. The warm feeling of a finished piece keeps me intrigued with the media." This West Texas artist's ability to convey this warmth and feeling in her work keeps the viewer intrigued with each new work she creates, whether it is a vibrant still life or a market scene filled with action or an old house, church or New Mexico mission inviting the viewer to step into a past of memories or project a future of promise.

Jo Beth Gilliam has taken her art from a hobby to a career. Through various workshops she has enhanced her unique insight into color and composition.

When she begins a new work her prime concern is with design, but she soon becomes involved with the subject matter so that she "can hear the sound and smell the scents".

For the most part a self-taught artist, Jo Beth has continually studied with a variety of nationally known watercolorists over the past nineteen years. She was commissioned to do the cover of the Poka-Lambro Telephone directory, 1992. Her painting "Potter's Profile", is on the cover of the '93 October issue of Panhandle Health Magazine and in the '96 issue of Southern Living, page 28. She conducts art workshops in Cloudcroft and Ruidoso, New Mexico and teaches classes in the Lubbock, Texas area.

Gilliam has been an active member of the West Texas Watercolor Society, serving as President, Secretary and Exhibit Chairman over the past few years. She has had one-woman shows at Eastern New Mexico University, Portales; South Plains College, Levelland, Texas; Lubbock Christian University; and Security State Bank, Abilene, Texas. Her works are found in private and corporate collections throughout the United States and in Germany.