Bonnie Zahn Griffith

I am an artist of the western landscape, working in oils and pastels. The rich pigments of pastel and oil allow me to create paintings that have the brilliance and the bold color we see in the landscapes of the western United States, giving me unlimited options to create. These mediums allow me to bring depth and texture, light and mood into my paintings.

My goal is to create work that draws the viewer in to experience and imagine the time of day, the temperature, the sounds, and the smells. I want the viewer to experience the work and get lost in it – if only for a moment. My love of the landscape prompts me to paint it.

I look for a story to tell when I look at the sagebrush hills, the lush river lands, the wheat fields, the intense greens of spring in rich mountain valleys, and the ever changing colors of the desert. My mediums allow me to tell that story with strong color and intensity. If I have been able to create a piece that brings the viewer to experience that...then I have done my job.

As a child of artist parents, I grew up on a ranch near the Missouri Breaks in central Montana. We lived in a remote area and that allowed for a lot of self-directed entertainment - drawing, painting, reading, horseback riding and daily ranch chores. I was a self-proclaimed artist at age 5, getting into my mother’s paints and paper, and create I did.

Landscape shapes, texture and color were observed and studied. Famous artists like Russell, O’Keefe, and Payne were favorite sources of reference. I don’t remember ever being “bored” because there was always something to do that interested me!

Pretty much all of that stuck with me through a career in Radiology Sciences; showing work in galleries and exhibits during that time. In the mid 1990’s my art became a full time endeavor. I have studied with instructors such as Robert Moore, Lorenzo Chavez, Ned Mueller, and others in the quest to strengthen and develop my style of representational work.

I work out of my studio in southwestern Idaho and paint plein air throughout the Rocky Mountain region, the western US plains and deserts.