Kathy Winkler began her career as an artist when she was very young - drawing animals at home and at school. As an adult, while raising two daughters, she won art show competitions. As her children grew to be teenagers, she began to work as an engineering graphics artist supporting U.S. Navy contracts and doing patent drawings. She became manager of engineering projects concerned with naval combat warfare systems. Concurrently, she obtained her M.A. in International Studies, completing her work at Oxford University. After 20 years in government contracting Kathy decided to go back to two of her true loves - creating paintings of animals, and riding and training her horses. Over the past 15 years, her painting style has changed, but her subjects remain the same. She has been recognized by museums that are animal oriented - she has had shows at those museums and now has paintings in their permanent collections.