Linda Lillegraven loves the austere, open landscapes
of the West's high
plains, and paints them in both oils and pastels. Her paintings are
in
the permanent collections of the Wyoming State Museum and the University
of Nebraska, among others. She has been in the Arts for the Parks
Top
100 five times, and won the Grand Prize in 2000.
She received her Master's Degree in biology at the University of Utah,
and Bachelor's Degrees in both art and zoology at San Diego State
University.
Her work has been featured in Southwest Art (November, 1997), and in Art
of the West (July/August, 1998).
She was Artist in Residence at Rocky Mountain National Park in 1996, and
at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY in 2001.
She is represented by Kneeland Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho, Big Horn
Galleries in Cody, Wyoming, Wild Horse Gallery in Steamboat Springs,
Colorado, and Sutton West Gallery in Missoula, Montana.
She and her husband, Jason Lillegraven live in Laramie, Wyoming.
Artist Statement
It is difficult to paint the prairie. The air is
thin, the light is
hard, and the transitions of color and tone are so subtle as to be
almost invisible. Great open spaces intimidate us with their offer
of
infinite freedom of choice -- walk any direction, it makes no
difference. There is no cool path through the sheltering woods, no
shelter at all from the violet-blue sky and the endless wind and the
smell of the sage. I can never capture the elemental, intolerable
beauty of such places in my work. I look forward to spending the
rest
of my life trying.