Karin Neuvirth

Last year Olmsted Medical Center purchased several paintings from local artists including 10 of mine.  A local public television show called ‘Off 90′ ran a segment on the local arts initiate in which I am interviewed.  Check it out on Youtube.

If you’ve visited Olmsted Medical Center on 9th St. SE Rochester lately, you’ve probably noticed some new art work on their walls.  In a recent intitiative by Olmsted Medical Center to redocorate their lobbies, hallways, and waiting rooms with local art, they have purchased more then 70 peices of art from local artists. 

Olmsted Medical Center stated in a recent article that purchasing community art keeps their investment local, and the works significantly upgrade the healing environments within their facilities.

Several of my paintings were purchased by Olmsted Medical Center.  A few of them are shown below…

[View with PicLens]

Positive thought for the day:  It may still be cold outside, but the sun reflects off the snow like a beacon, calling us out from our winter hiding places and promising us a warmer tomorrow.  I’m still waiting for spring, but it does my heart good to see that sun shine!

Cityscapes are a relatively new subject for me, and it has definately been a learning experience for me.  I chose to explore this new subject as a way to help my work to evolve and grow as I have become so familiar with my expressionistic style paintings of nature and felt that I needed to move beyond that and tackle something different.

It has taken me a little while to establish exactly how my style would translate into a cityscape without losing the vibrance and energy that I desire from my work.  I’m very happy with how this painting turned out, as it captures the energy and excitement that exists in TimeSquare (which is the subject).  

I know that this photo is a little skewed, but it’s just a snapshot – and the camera was at a bad angle.  This painting is on an 24 x 18 museum wrapped canvas.  I plan to have it on display at the Art & Hors d’oeuvres Event at the SEMVA Art Gallery on October 16th at 7:00 PM.   So, if you want to get a better look, Stop by for good food and great conversation with several of the SEMVA artists.

I’ve been doing more work with cooler colors lately, and this painting is the beginning of a series that really emphasizes cool peaceful shades of blue.  This series, which I call “Moonlit” gives the feeling of a moon beam lighting up a garden.  I love how this white iris appears violet in the Moonlight.

This painting is on an 18 x 14 museum wrapped canvas.  I plan to have it on display at the Art & Hors d’oeuvres Event at the SEMVA Art Gallery on October 16th at 7:00 PM. 

Art & Hors d’oeuvres is an annual event at the SEMVA Gallery which is nestled in the Peace Plaza in downtown Rochester, MN.  Artists will be displaying their latest  work and many will be on hand to meet and greet guests that evening. It promises to be a wonderful evening with a mix of conversation and food!  Tell your friends, everyone is welcome.

With the summer coming to a quick end, I have one final outdoor art festival on my schedule.  I will be showing my paintings at the Wausau Festival of Arts, which will be held on September 12th and 13th in Wausau Wisconsin. This annual Festival of Arts is now in its 45th year. Each year, the free celebration of the arts, decorates downtown Wausau with exceptional artwork, entertainment and children’s activities. Patrons can purchase artwork in a variety of styles and prices from over 120 juried, professional artists from Wisconsin and all over the country.  The festival also features live music, a silent auction, and ‘Young Collectors’ booth where children 12 years and under can purchase artwork for 25.00 or less.  What a wonderful way to finish off the season!

In August, Rochester will once again be the home to a new fine arts festival.  The First Annual ARTigras is sheduled for August 22, 2009.  It will be a daylong celebration of the arts to be held in Mayo Park (behind the Civic Center).  Activities offered free of charge in this noon to 7 pm event include an ARTiStage, ARTiKids activities and an ARTists Village.  

I will have a tent set up in the ARTists Village, so you will be able to see and buy a much larger assortment of work then is available at the Gallery on the Peace Plaza.  I will be displaying my latest series of paintings (Changing Seasons) at this event, be sure to get there.  You’ll also want to venture over to the Peace Plaza  to check out The Blues and Barbeque Festival that will be held in the there from 4 pm to 10:30 pm.  The $25 tickets for the Blues & Barbecue Festival will be pre-sold and are available through the Rochester Convention & Visitors Bureau. In addition, several downtown Rochester restaurants and businesses will offer ARTigras specials throughout the day.  For more details on ARTigras visit the Rochester Arts Council website.

I recently have been working on some expressionistic landscape paintings.   Staying true to the nature of expressionistic work, color is the most predominant element in these new works, as it is with most of my work.  I’ve also discovered that painting my landscapes vertically  instead of horizontally seems to add more interest to the piece. 

As I was working on a Spring landscape filled with several green and purple hues, It occurred to me that I could change the landscape dramatically just by changing the color scheme.  I decided to do a series of paintings with basically the same landscape, but use different color schemes to represent the different seasons.  At first I only intended to paint Spring, Summer, and Fall, but due to some pressure from my loving husband, I also painting a Winter.  I did struggle the most with the Winter scene, and at first it really looked just too cold and harsh, but after adding some brighter colors (a suggestion from my son, Miles), it really seems to complete the series quite well.  I’m so lucky to have such a great supporting family.  The finished Series (shown above) is called Changing Landscape.

Coneflower

I finally got a picture of my latest painting.  I Painted this one, titled ‘Coneflower’ with a much cooler color pallete then most of my paintings.  I think the purples and greens add a bit of serenity to the painting, but because the colors are still very intense, it still has a lot of energy.