ZIONS BANK COMMISSIONS SUSAN SWARTZ

Today Zions Bank opens their new Idaho Headquarters in Boise. The top floor will known as the "Founders Room" and will feature Susan Swartz's  two new works, Idaho Majesty I and II each 48x85, in addition to the amazing Boise vistas.

Susan says:

“It is a great honor for me to have received this significant commission from Zions Bank for their new Idaho headquarters in Boise. My husband and I have been traveling to Idaho since the 1970’s first to ski in Sun Valley, then river rafting on the River of No Return in the 1980’s, then again skiing in the 2000’s with the US Ski Team. Jim has been on numerous hunting trips in western Idaho, and fortunately for me, the landscape artist, he shot more photos than game! These Idaho views and my own experiences in Idaho have become an integral part of my visual language. They helped inspire my transformation from an east coast watercolorist of flora and fauna to an abstract western landscape artist of monumental skies, dramatic mountains, roaring rivers, rich forests and abundant plains. I now work exclusively in acrylics on large linen canvases.

Before I started this commission, I knew the title of these paintings would be Idaho Majesty. I am referencing a work painted and exhibited at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in 2008, Purple Majesty. With Idaho Majesty I and II I have again envisioned the clear, bright colors of autumn. In Idaho Majesty I, the large blue/purple area presents the sky: the yellow sun shining down and the horizontal yellow is autumnal aspen trees as they turned predominately gold from their summer green. In Idaho Majesty II, the sky is a vibrant yellow and the mountains in the horizon become blue. The valley comes to the mountains with its green prairie grass becoming fall yellow.

Each of these paintings contains my fervent respect and belief in the majesty of God’s natural world. My hope is that our communities of faith, business and government can join together to preserve this precious gift.”