Bonnie Conrad
Oil painter Bonnie Conrad portrays images of America's western and rural heritage. Subjects range from Native American to cowboy or women, children and animals in a rural setting. Having lived on several ranches, including Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Texas with her ranch manager husband Roger, Conrad has been exposed to the West up close and personal. It drew her in and she paints it with exuberance. She has dressed her five daughters in pantaloons and long dresses and posed them in the icy Shoshone River “washing clothes” and rounded up her husband’s “hands” in a rare spare moment and bid them to run their horses thru the river “one more time” and joined in the bloody “fun” at branding time.
She has reveled in the palpable excitement of the cowboys behind the chutes at rodeo as they ready to try their skills at a testy bronc, and fallen over wagon tongues because she was so interested in seeing what was going on “out there” that she wasn’t watching “right here”. We have 4-H’d and joined pow-wows and danced at Crow Fair. We have driven in a rickety bus down through seven vegetative zones of the Copper Canyon to visit the Tarahumara Indians to visit the purported least “civilized” tribe on the North American continent. We have hiked down to the White House ruins with a 50 lb. pack of “artists paraphernalia” to paint the Navajo Bead workers and the colorfully chiseled walls of Canyon d’Chelly and felt the Spirit of the Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde and puzzled over petroglyphs of southern Utah.
Education underpinning Bonnie’s production include a B.A. in arts, a year studying under master draftsman Kent Goodliffe and workshops with some of her favorites including Dan Mieduch, Jim Wilcox, Matt Smith, Donald (Putt) Puttnam, Carolyn Anderson, Gary Kapp and William Reese as well as many trips to museums and galleries studying favorite works. What evolved was a painterly style enriched by a love for study of color and a striking portrayal of light.
Conrad is honored as a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America (OPA) and American Women Artists (AWA).and has won several awards in their national exhibitions. Permanent collections sporting her work are the St. George Art Museum, Utah, the Clymer Museum in Ellensburg, Washington and Dixie State College Collection.
Some of her Awards include: Purchase Award St. George Art Museum 2021, Top15% Bold Brush Painting Fine Art Studio Online 7/2020, Lifetime Achievement Award Marquis Who's Who 2017, Purchase Award, Pioneer Museum, St.George, Utah 2015, Southwest Art Publisher's Award 2012, Oil Painters of America "Honorable Mention" 2011, American Plains Artists First Place Oil 2009 and Best of Show 2004, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 2008 Poster Artist, St. George Arts Festival Best of Show 2004, Zwei Tu Color Award Oil Painter's of America 2003, First Place Oil American Academy of Women Artists 2003, Best of Show Western Spirit 2003.
Some invitational shows Bonnie has been invited to participate in include Phippen Museum's Masters in Miniature, Briscoe Museum's "Night of Artists", Miniatures by the Lake, Coeur d'Alene Galleries, Mountain Oyster Club, Settler's West Miniature, Gilcrease Museum's America in Miniature, C.M. Russell Masters in Miniature, and Western Spirit Cheyenne, WY. Museum shows include St. George Art Museum 2015, Sears Gallery Show, Dixie State College 2015, Clymer Museum “Two Gents and a Lady” 1999, Bradford Brinton Four Person Show 1997, Sheridan College Museum One Woman Show 1996.
Some publications include Art of the West Feature Jul/Aug 2021, Southwest Art, State of the Art, Utah, August 2019, Western Art & Architecture Jan. 2018, American Women Artists at the Rockwell, Painting the Figure, Southwest Art Nov. 2017, Best of the Best American Figurative 2012, Western Art Collector, "Women of the West", June 2012, "Brush and Canvas Show" May 2011, "Art of the Horse" June 2010 and "Artist Focus", March 2010, cover Mesquite Riches, Dr. Herb Marlow 2012, cover Cover Rocky Mountain Rider 2010, American Cowboy 2007, Western Horseman, Cowboys and Indians and Southwest Art in 2005, Informart and Painthorse Magazine 2002, U.S. Art 2001, Art of the West 2000 and Art of the American West, Rockport Publishers 1999.