Janet W. (Wendy) Warner

Janet W. (Wendy) Warner was an artist, patron, and naturalist celebrated both in Western New York and in Pennsylvania where she later moved with her husband, Murray. Wendy gravitated to watercolor to depict the light and seasonal changes in her landscapes, although she also painted in oils and acrylics.

Born in Buffalo, New York in 1926, Wendy studied sculpture with Concetta Scaravaglione at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers (now Bronxville), New York, and with Jean V. MacKay Henrich at the Art Institute of Buffalo. She also studied painting with Robert N. Blair for several years alongside fellow painter Estelle Lutz. Her subject matter typically includes impressionistic landscapes using the transparent watercolor method. In addition to our regional landscape, she found quiet inspirational places to paint in Vermont, Arizona, and Montana.

Wendy’s art, which won several awards over the years, was featured in many exhibitions throughout the Western New York area, including at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Kenan Center in Lockport, Meibohm Fine Arts in East Aurora, UB Anderson Gallery, Garret Club, then-named Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and Chautauqua Art Association. National and juried exhibitions showing her work included the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Watercolor Society, and Washington Watercolor Club at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Her art is in private and corporate collections in the U.S., Canada, and Germany. The Burchfield Penney owns five of her works in its collection.

Wendy Warner also provided camaraderie among Western New York artists and was a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists. She was instrumental in supporting numerous exhibitions at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, including such major retrospectives as Bruce Kurland: Insight into Still Life in 1983 and Robert N. Blair and the Watercolor Tradition in Western New York in 2000, and An Alternative Course: The Art Institute of Buffalo (1931-1956) in 2006.