Erin Jones Graf (b. 1982) is a fine art oil and pastel painter, living in Bozeman, MT. Her work largely depicts the landscapes in which she grew up, surrounded by and where she lives currently. She aims to convey the colors and harmonies within the landscapes that have always brought her peace, happiness, and an overwhelming appreciation for God’s creation. Being raised on her family’s ranch, founded in 1908, in the very rural middle of Montana, Erin spent her days outside exploring the land, on her horse, and scavenging abandoned, crumbling buildings of homesteads and barns long forgotten. Her roots stretch deep into that ground.
From the time Erin was nine-years-old, she knew she wanted to be an artist. She grew up surrounded by the paintings of Claude P. Parsons, her great grandfather and in his time, a well-known California impressionist painter. She would study his paintings, fascinated by the abstractness of color and brush marks from a nose length away and the believability of the piece from afar. She made her own art space in the basement of the ranch house where she could create her own inspirations.
Erin studied fine art at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, from 2001-2006 and received a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Printmaking and a Bachelors of K-12 Art Education. She was awarded MSU’s Award of Excellence for Art which is given to the top two graduating seniors in each department. Erin also became a Division 1 All-American in the Heptathlon and after graduation began a career in coaching Track and Field at the university. During her time coaching, and having two children with her husband Eugene, she continued her art and was largely self-taught in oil painting. She was able to study under artists such as Marc Hanson, T.J. Cunningham, Joshua Claire, and Greg Scheibel in plein-air settings, helping her to understand what she had observed in the landscapes of Montana for all those years. She left her coaching position in 2015 to become a full-time artist.
Erin works largely on commission basis, scheduling out sometimes more than a year’s wait, and paints for collectors across the United States. She had her first solo art museum show in 2019 at The Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln Nebraska where she exhibited 35 pieces for four months with the exhibit title of “Montana: Prairies to Peaks”. She also was the Artist-in-Residence there and the museum now owns two of her paintings. She was co-founder of The Three Rivers Artists Guild, is the past president of the Southwest Montana Arts group, and served 5 years as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Bozeman Art Museum. Erin has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, and believes in giving to others and sharing her work for fundraising efforts in organizations she believes in. She loves the business of art, creating strong relationships with her buyers and collectors, and making connections coast to coast. Erin has always believed that her life shall be like paint on a canvas, flowing and ebbing its way with color, expression, grace, and gratitude. She wants to be contagious, to make others feel the wonder of this world as she does.
