The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Great Plains Art Museum will welcome Montana painter Erin Jones Graf as the 2019 Elizabeth Rubendall Artist in Residence.
During her residency, Jones Graf will create an artwork that will become part of the museum’s permanent collection. Visitors are encouraged to see the artist in action from March 23 through April 6 during normal museum hours.
The museum will also display Jones Graf’s work in an exhibition titled “Montana: Prairies to Peaks” in the lower-level gallery from March 1 through June 29.
The public is invited to two activities:
March 30, 1 to 4 p.m.: Free art activity day; all ages are welcome.
April 6, 1 to 3 p.m.: Jones Graf will hold a chalk pastel workshop for children 9 to 13. Space is limited; contact the museum for more information and to register.
Jones Graf is a fine art oil and pastel painter who graduated from Montana State University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking and another degree in K-12 art education. While she is drawn to the manual labor of printmaking and the “chemistry” behind the process, her love has always been painting. The artist’s native Montana is the subject of her exhibition.
“I grew up on the edge of the great plains of Montana, on land that nourished four generations of my family before me …,” she said. “I paint my home, and my home is expansive. From prairies to peaks, I move along the hay fields and hills, painting the grandeur that is Montana.”
Raised on her family’s ranch, founded in 1908 in the rural middle of Montana, Erin spent her days exploring the land on her horse and scavenging abandoned, crumbling buildings of homesteads and barns. She grew up surrounded by the paintings of her great-grandfather Claude P. Parsons, in his time a well-known California impressionist painter. Jones Graf has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, and believes in giving to others and sharing her work for fundraising efforts for organizations important to her.
Jones Graf is the inaugural artist for the Elizabeth Rubendall Artist-in-Residence Studio and Education Lab donated by Fred and Julie Hoppe, which opens this spring.
Since its inception in 2006, the Elizabeth Rubendall Foundation has funded the artist-in-residence program, which allows museum visitors and school groups to watch an artist in action.
The Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St., is open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free.
