JK Art House, Milwaukee’s newest contemporary fine art gallery, is pleased to announce its official launch and the acquisition of Lily Pad Gallery West from founder Alan Perlstein. Co-owned by gallery director Julia Taylor and Karen Ellenbecker, founder of Ellenbecker Investment Group, JK Art House represents 55 artists working across painting, sculpture, and mixed media—carrying forward a strong legacy of arts in the Historic Third Ward while bringing a fresh vision to the gallery’s future.
JK Art House will relocate to an expanded home at 191 N. Broadway—a space nearly double the square footage of its predecessor—featuring expanded exhibition galleries, dedicated artwork storage, and a private client viewing room designed to deepen the collector experience. Please note that the gallery will be closed May 18–26 for the move and will reopen in the new location for regular hours on Wednesday, May 27.
Grand Opening Reception
The community is invited to celebrate the grand opening of JK Art House’s new space at a Grand Opening Reception on Friday, June 5, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 191 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. The evening will serve as the opening reception for The Studio: A Family Dialogue in Paint, featuring Dan McCaw, John McCaw, and Danny McCaw. Guests are invited to meet the artists, explore the new space, and experience a first look at what JK Art House has in store.
From the Owners
“JK Art House is built on the belief that great art should feel welcoming—that a gallery can be both a serious place for collecting and a home where the community can celebrate.
— Julia Taylor, Gallery Director & Co-Owner
“Investing in the arts is investing in the soul of this city. I’m proud to help bring a gallery of this caliber to Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward, and to support the extraordinary artists whose work will fill it.”
— Karen Ellenbecker, Co-Owner
About JK Art House
JK Art House is a contemporary fine art gallery located in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. JK Art House is committed to making art accessible, building meaningful collector relationships, and contributing to the cultural vitality of the Milwaukee region. The gallery is co-owned by Julia Taylor, former President of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and Karen Ellenbecker, founder of Ellenbecker Investment Group.
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complementary approaches to landscape painting. United by a shared love for nature and its forms, Washa and Batchelder interpret landscapes with unique styles that, when displayed together, create a dynamic conversation
between representation and abstraction, serenity and vibrancy.
Diane Washa approaches landscapes with an expressive, intuitive style that captures the essence of natural environments. Using a more abstract palette and layered brushstrokes, she focuses on conveying mood and atmosphere, offering viewers a sense of place that feels both mysterious and familiar. Her works often feature a softer color range and a fluidity that encourages quiet reflection. Washa’s pieces reveal landscapes that seem to float between reality and memory, where elements of water, sky, and land merge harmoniously.
Peter Batchelder, by contrast, presents landscapes with a structured, architectural quality. His works are marked by bold colors, strong lines, and defined forms, transforming fields, barns, and open spaces into vibrant, graphic compositions. Batchelder’s landscapes often include elements of rural architecture—barns, farmhouses, and silos—emphasizing their geometric shapes and their relationship with open space. His palette is vibrant and crisp, lending a distinct energy to his scenes. The contrast between Washa’s ethereal, layered style and Batchelder’s bold, structured approach creates a dialogue that highlights the diversity within landscape art. Together, their works balance abstraction and realism, inviting viewers to explore both the emotive and the physical aspects of the natural world.
Award-winning Wisconsin based plein air painter, Diane Washa captures the dynamic and varying atmospheres of landscapes across the country. Often painterly and dreamlike, occasionally almost to the point of abstraction,Washa's paintings not only depict the qualities of light, air and color of these scenes, but manifest the indescribable aura and presence of the spaces. Washa came late to her now-productive life as an artist. A business executive by day, she became serious about her life-long passion for painting in 2005. Years later, she was exhibiting at galleries and art exhibitions, including as a featured artist. She has a degree in fine art from Milton College and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Peter Batchelder’s paintings are inspired by a lifetime living in, and exploring, rural New England. He is particularly drawn to the seemingly ageless quality of barns and old New England architecture. As a colorist, Peter's work captures real and imagined color palettes, and often color in itself is the subject. Having trained in studio art under Massachusetts artists Jack Coughlin, Lionel Gongora, Hanlon Davies, and William Patterson at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Peter's primary influences include the work of Edward Hopper, Wolf Kahn, Fairfield Porter, Andrew and James Wyeth, Bo Bartlett, David Hockney and Richard Diebenkorn. Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, he currently lives in Amherst, New Hampshire, with his wife, Kim, and children, Owen and Lily.
Image: “Paddock” 20x30, Oil on Canvas, Peter Batchelder
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