Artist Talk with Aldona Jonaitis: “Channeling Rosa Bonheur”

Join Fairbanks Arts in the Bear Gallery on Wednesday, May 17, at 7 p.m. for an artist talk with Aldona Jonaitis titled: “Channeling Rosa Bonheur.”

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) was the most distinguished 19th-century European painter of horses and other animals. As a girl, Aldona was captivated by The Horse Fair (1855) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In recent years she’s made pastels of landscapes, cityscapes, buildings, and people but always returned to animals, especially horses. This talk will begin with Bonheur and present the artistic journey she inspired within Aldona for Sentience.

Aldona Jonaitis was born in New York City and started painting and drawing horses at a young age. Aldona received a Ph.D. in Northwest Coast Indigenous Art from Columbia University. Jonaitis moved to Fairbanks in 1993 to become the Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and curate the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery. After retiring, Aldona became attracted to pastels and has taken workshops with Barbara Noonan, Dawn Emerson, Marla Baggetta, and Anita Lehman.