Biography

Lydia Gatzow is a contemporary impressionistic landscape oil painter inspired by wilderness and wildness. Born and raised on Lake Michigan in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, she was always drawn to making art and being in the great outdoors. In high school she backpacked in the Colorado Rockies one summer and spent another abroad in the south of France studying art at Oxbridge Academy. Lydia then moved to Pasadena, California, where the call of the desert first planted its seed. She graduated from Pratt Institute of Art & Design, Brooklyn, New York, in 2015 with a BFA in painting and minor in Art History and Ceramics. Many of her paintings are 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 always surround us. She has a background in organic farming in Sweden and Vermont and is passionate about wilderness conservation, meditation, and yoga. Lydia arrived in Sedona in 2019, where she now lives and paints, after traveling across North America in her 1982 VW bus with her partner Charles, where she painted in over 12 National Parks, Forests, and Heritage Sites. Lydia is both inspired by the work of French and American Impressionists, as well as Abstract Expressionists. These traditional and modern sensibilities inform her unique style. Lydia is an associate member of Oil Painters of America and The American Impressionist Society and has won numerous awards for her work.

‘My paintings are currently focused on the grandeur and the impermanence of the Southwestern landscape. I am fascinated by how wind and water have carved rocks, shaped canyons, and determined the fate of its inhabitants through its appearance or absence. The Spirit of Nature reminds me of the interconnectedness of all things, and I hope this brings a sense of wholeness and peace to the viewer.’

EDUCATION
2015 BFA, Major in Painting, Minor in Art History & Ceramics, Pratt Institute of Art &
Design, Brooklyn, NY

REPRESENTATION
Mountain Trails Gallery at Tlaquepaque, Sedona, Arizona
Legends of the West Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Wilde Meyer Galleries in Scottsdale and Tucson, Arizona

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS
2025 September Plein Air Salon Top Finalist
2024-Present Oil Painters of America Associate Member
2025-Present American Impressionist Society Associate Member
2024 Honorable Mention: ‘The Spirit of Prescott’ Award, 5th Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ. Awarded by Dawn Sutherland and Bill Cramer.
2023 Best Red Rocks, awarded by Tim Newton, publisher at 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- awarded by Alan Peterson, Curator at Northern Arizona University Museum
2023 Honorable Mention, 4th Annual Prescott Plein Air Festival, Yavapai College Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ- awarded by Robert Goldman (OPA Signature Member)

PRESS
2025, Featured Artist and Interview, ‘Windows to the Wilderness’ Art Source Magazine
2024, Featured Artist in ‘Woman Blazing New Trails, Collectors’ Focus,’ Western Art Collector Magazine
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

SELECTED SOLO/GROUP & JURIED EXHIBITIONS
2026- ‘Enchanted Skies’ Solo Exhibition, Legends of the West Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2025- Mountain Oyster Club Art Show, Tucson, Arizona
2025- Juried artist, Paint the Grand Traverse Plein Air festival, Crooked Tree Art Center, Traverse City, Michigan
2025- 34th Annual Oil Painters of America National Exhibition and Convention, Herring Center for the Arts, Bradenton, Florida
2025- Annual Salon Show, Juried Members Show: Arizona Plein Air Painters, The Scottsdale Artists School, 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