Artist

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LYDIA GATZOW
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  Based out of Sedona, AZ  

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” ~John Muir

Bio

Lydia Gatzow is a contemporary impressionistic landscape oil painter and plein air colorist, born and raised on Lake Michigan in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. In high school she spent a summer abroad in the south of France studying art at Oxbridge Academy and after that moved to Pasadena, California. She graduated from Pratt Institute of Art & Design, Brooklyn, New York, in 2015 with a BFA in painting, minor in art history and ceramics and has exhibited her work in juried group shows across the USA. Her paintings are primarily completed outdoors on site, drawing direct inspiration from nature; these plein air sessions inform her studio work. She sees her paintings as expressions of the beautiful and sacred energies that surround us at all times. She is influenced by the modern abstract expressionists of the New York School as well as 19th century American and French Impressionists. This is evident in the unique style of her work that has evolved over many years of practice and study. She has a background in organic farming in Sweden and Vermont and is passionate about wilderness conservation, meditation, and yoga. Lydia arrived in the Sedona in 2019, where she now lives and paints, after traveling North America in her 1982 VW bus with her partner Charles, where she painted in over 10 national parks, heritage sites, and forests. Lydia is currently represented by Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona. She has recently been juried into Oil Painters of America.

Artist Statement

Many of us come to the desert seeking or longing for something greater than ourselves. There is a spiritual quality to be discovered here that I am always pointing towards in my work. I paint primarily outdoors on site, where I am guided by light, intuition, the elements of nature, and a profound appreciation for the wilderness.  Wild lands is an amazing example of how just allowing something to “be” creates so much healing, regeneration, and abundance. The more we surrender control, the more we allow things to thrive. The loose and intuitive way in which I paint seeks to mimic that which is pristine and uncultivated. Living full time in Sedona and painting here almost daily has allowed me to connect deeply to this sacred and ever evolving landscape. I am drawn to both classic and overlooked scenes across Arizona and the Southwest, offering my unique vision and love for the miracle of life through paint. To me, my art is my greatest offering to others. I hope to create a window into the very soul of the desert, leading us back to the desert, the landscape, and the wilderness within.

 

EDUCATION

2015 BFA, Major in Painting, Minor in Art History & Ceramics, Pratt Institute of Art & Design, Brooklyn, NY
REPRESENTATION
Mountain Trails Galleries at Tlaquepaque, Sedona, Arizona

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

2024 Honorable Mention: “The Spirit of Prescott” Award, 5th Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ

2023 Best Red Rocks, awarded by Tim Newton, publisher of Western Art & Architecture Magazine, 19th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, AZ

2023 Honorable Mention, Main Street Quick Paint, 19th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, AZ

2023 Honorable Mention, 4th Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ

2018 2nd Place Quick Paint competition, En Plein Air Painting Festival, Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, VT
2012-2015 Pratt Presidential Merit Scholarship, Pratt Institute of Art & Design, Brooklyn, NY

PRESS

2023 “Open Portfolio: Lydia Gatzow,” December Interview with Sedona Monthly Magazine, Sedona, AZ

2023 “Wyatt Gallery features Lydia Gatzow,” The Red Rock News, Sedona, AZ
2019 “Creativity, Intentional Living, & Slowing Down; An Interview with Artist Lydia Gatzow,” The Good Heart Life Blog, Worcester, VT
2018 “Rendering Nature,” The Vermont Standard, Quechee, VT
2018 “Artistic Impressions,” Summer campaign, World Of interiors magazine, conde naste publications, UK

SELECTED GROUP & JURIED EXHIBITIONS 

2025- Annual Salon Show, Juried Members Show: Arizona Plein Air Painters, The Scottsdale Artists School, Phoenix, AZ

2024- Arizona Around The Clock, Juried Members Show: Arizona Plein Air Painters Salon, The Mood Room, Phoenix, AZ

2024- 5th Annual Juried Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ

2023- 19th Annual Juried Sedona Plein Air Festival, sedona Arts Center, Sedona , AZ

2023- 4th Annual Juried Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ

2023- Juried Members Show, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, AZ
2023- Arizona Plein Air Painters Salon, Scottsdale Artists’ School, AZ
2021- Scapes and Scope: Visions of the Land, Sea, and Urban Space, Huntington Beach Arts Center, Huntington Beach, CA
2019 Landscape; Urban and Rural, The Brick Lane Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2018 En Plein Air Painting Festival Exhibition, Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, VT
2018 Fresh Perspective, Vermont Emerging Artists Juried Show, Frog Hollow, Burlington, VT
2017 Dark Matter, The s.p.a.c.e. gallery, Burlington, VT
2016-2019 Show14-show32, The Front Gallery, Montpelier, VT
2015 Blind Spots: Thesis Painting Exhibition, East Hall Gallery,  Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Speculative Alchemy, Live Artists Studio, Milwaukee, WI
2011 Further Painting Show, Heimbold Arts Center, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY