In The Workshop With… Park City Artist Bridgette Meinhold
The breathtaking mountains and forests of the Park City area are captured beautifully in the art work of encaustic artist Bridgette Meinhold. She layers inky trees and mountain landscapes with milk paints and diaphanous coats of beeswax and pigment, creating ethereal and moody landscapes with visual depth. It is mesmerizing to gaze at her work, sinking into each quiet scene as if you are there, enveloped in peace and serenity every image exudes. One can almost feel the gauzy mist or evening stillness among the forest and peaks.
Meinhold’s Journey in Art
While she enjoyed dabbling in art in her youth, Meinhold’s journey to becoming an artist was atypical. Rather than attending art school, she chose the academic route at university, earning two degrees in engineering; a BS in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University and a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford. Originally from Oklahoma, she wanted to experience living in a ski town. So, living in Europe for a bit and while waiting to hear from grad schools, she landed in Park City in 2004.
The mountains took hold of Meinhold and, many years later, Park City remains her home. Prior to becoming an artist, she spent time working as a sustainability consultant, writer, private chef and author. She met her husband, Matt, here, and the couple live in an aspen grove just outside town in a little A-frame cabin, accessible only by snowmobile in winter. Meinhold paints full time in her studio (a shipping container beside her home) and spends her free time immersed in the mountains. In winter she skis from her doorstep into the backcountry and in the milder seasons she mountain bikes, hikes and fills her sketchbook with the surrounding scenery. She enjoys creating her own inks from flora and fauna which she collects from the landscape. Meinhold is also a writer and has written two books; Urgent Architecture (about sustainable housing solutions) and Down Deso (a book in artistic, journal-like format detailing her rafting trip down the Green River through Desolation Canyon, Utah, where her journey in becoming an artist unfolded).
Meinhold is a self-described naturalist and lover of nature. “The weather, trees, the mountains and the natural world are my influencers,” she declares. That is clearly evident in her evocative work.
To read the full interview with Bridgette Meinhold and learn about how she developed her career, her process and what inspires her, check out the Park City issue of The Loaded Trunk. Click here to subscribe and gain access to the entire TLT library!
In Park City, Meinhold’s work is available for sale at Gallery Mar.
Learn more about Park City Artist Bridgette Meinhold here and follow her in instagram: @bridgette-meinhold
