Bonnie Zahn Griffith, born and raised in Montana, is an artist who works mostly in pastel and oil. She has a special affinity for the landscape of the West working whenever possible "en plein air" - on location, painting from real life. Her goal is to utilize color to the optimum, to bring forth color not often noticeable at a quick glance. Bonnie says "I invite the viewer to take a moment and put themselves in the scene; to experience the season, the time of day, the weather. I want that person to get lost in that work, if only for a moment. If that happens, then I have done my job."
Bonnie was recently awarded the 2015 Artist in Residence for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah. Her goal during the month-long residency was to paint 30 paintings during her stay; mostly done en plein air in areas with names like Hell's Backbone and Death Hollow, beautiful as they were, according to Bonnie. She accomplished that goal as well as planning demonstrations and arts education events, such as having elementary school students create cave walls out of rolls of brown paper and then doing their own stories in the cave drawing style of the Anastazi. The month culminated in a 3-day festival of artists, music, talks and more.
Bonnie is a member of the Blue Buffalo Artists and has several landscape paintings included in the group's exhibit now at the MonDak Heritage Center through February 13, 2016. She also belongs to the Northwest Pastel Society (signature member), the Pastel Society of the West Coast, Landscape Painters International and numerous art guilds in Montana, Idaho and Washington. She is a former executive director of the Waterworks Art Museum in Miles City and former president of the Northwest Pastel Society. Her work is represented by several galleries in MT, WA, OR and ID and more info is available on her website http://www.bonniegriffith.com.
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