Janee Hughes is an artist specializing in animals. Her paintings are full of animals--especially horses--all kinds of horses, even those found on carousels! She has owned horses for many years and understands how they act and move, and how they show their feelings.

Janee works in various media, including acrylic, oil, watercolor, pen and pencil, and even digital. She has done commisioned work for newspapers, magazines, and catalogs. Her equine paintings have won awards. She spent four years painting hand-carved wooden horses for Salem's Riverfront Carousel, a community project produced by volunteers in the Salem area. She also produced a poster which became an important fund-raiser, and has illustrated four children's books published by the carousel.

After working on Salem's carousel, Janee and several other carousel painters were asked to paint a life size "Kow" for Portland's Kow's For Kids project. She then began working with The Trail of Painted Ponies project in New Mexico. She has completed nine maquettes, one "masterwork", and two life-size horses for them. The Kows and the Ponies are sponsored by various businesses and/or individuals, put on display when finished, and eventually auctioned off, with the proceeds going to various charities. Many of the Painted Ponies have been reproduced as figurines, and have become very popular collectibles. Janee has also done several pony designs which were made directly into figurines.