Kay Witherspoon

A modern day Renaissance woman, Kay Witherspoon has worked on her Aunt and Uncle Winninger's Wyoming cattle ranch (1964-66); on trail crews for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and Idaho (1971-73) in the Salmon River Wilderness and Bitterroot National Forest where she lived and worked fighting  forest fires, clearing trails and salmon hatching channels, and doing river count on the Salmon River, ID; as a high school history and art teacher (1973-75) in Hamilton, MT; in Denver, Colorado as a residential realtor (1976-83); as an owner,  publisher and art director for "The Colorado Art Index" and "Community Living" Magazines (1982-89); as marketing director for the Billings Deaconess Hospital; and as a graduate counselor at the University of Colorado; and as a marriage and family therapist with the Jefferson Center for Mental Health (1996 –97).  Throughout this varied career life Witherspoon painted and exhibited and sold in national and regional shows. 

Finally, in 1997 she was able to pursue her life-long passion for painting on a full time basis.  In 2004, Witherspoon purchased her studio condominium in Englewood, Colorado near The Wildlife Experience Museum where she paints, maintains an internet gallery, teaches workshops, and markets her original and limited edition prints. Kay is a professional member of the American Academy of Equine Art (AAEA),  the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), a member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA), and the Denver Art Student’s League. 

Kay is the second of five children of Bill and Ruth Witherspoon of Billings, Montana. She resides in Littleton, Colorado along with her husband, James Thomas ("Tom") Ayers.  Her son, Remington and daughter-in-law, Melissa both have careers in medicine and also reside in the Denver area.   Kay enjoys golfing, fishing, snow-skiing, hiking, photography, cooking, swimming, teaching art, and her church fellowship at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

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