Amy E. Arntson

medium: painting
wisconsin academy gallery artist, 2002

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Echo 2006 Painting	Evening Sun 2006 Painting	Michigan Shoreline 2007 Painting
Under Tom's Pier 2004 Painting	Things We Know 2006 Painting	Michigan Afternoon 2006 Painting
Mystic One: Jewelbox 2006 Painting	Dark Water I 2006 Painting	Superior Morning 2005 Painting
Sonata in Blue 2005 Painting

Contact information
Artist resides in: Lake Mills, WI
Email Address: arntsona@uww.edu

Artist statement
The theme of my watercolor paintings is water in the Great Lakes region and beyond.

I've been looking at and creating art for many years. Like most contemporary artists, there are many influences on my work. These include the British 19th-century watercolor artists and their powerful, moody landscapes of the mountains in Wales, and also the 17th-century luminists who addressed the relationship between landscape and the expression of feelings with their wash drawings. An array of 20th-century abstract artwork appeals to me for its color usage, design qualities, surface quality and emotive mark-making. Abstract color and texture are an underpinning to all my highly realistic paintings.

I have worked with a wide array of mediums, but line and wash and watercolor are the most beautiful to my eye, and where I have decided to concentrate my efforts.

Growing up in the Great Lakes region, water has always been a powerful symbol for me. It is intimately connected with the passage of time. Most of these water studies do not reference the surrounding land. Instead, they focus on movement and meditation. There is no place to stand, only a place to be. We project ourselves onto the ever-changing surface of the water. Every viewer sees these paintings through the filter of their own memories and associations.

These water images are created from sketches and photographs of locations I visit. My home is the Great Lakes area, where my father and grandfather worked on the car ferries that crossed Lake Michigan.

Biography
Experience:
Professor, Art Department, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 1982-2004
Art Department Chairperson, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 1991-1996

Education:
MFA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1981
BFA, Michigan State University, 1969
Post-graduate study at Visual Studies Workshop/Rochester, Kent State, UW-Madison, Royal College of Art/London

Upcoming and Recent Exhibitions:
Solo Show, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, Wis., 2008
Paradise Lost?, Touring exhibition on climate change, 2007-08
Two Person Show, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, 2007
Featured Artist, Water Street Gallery, Saugatuck, Mich., 2006
Featured Artist, Tory Folliard Gallery, Door County, Wis., 2006
Florence Biennial, Italy, 2005
Solo Show, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., 2005
Forest, Rock, Wind, Water, Bonifas Arts Center, Escanaba, Mich., 2005
Second Nature, Center Gallery, UW-Whitewater, 2004
Nature as Metaphor, Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wis., 2004
Wisconsin/Landscapes Iinvitational, UW-Eau Claire, 2003
Waters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Academy Gallery, 2002
Brittingham Art Invitational, UW System, Madison, Wis., 2002-03
Wisconsin Triennial, Madison Art Center, Wis., 2002
Arntson, Miotke, Wimmer, Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wis., 2001
Gallery Artists, Mary Bell Gallery, Chicago, Ill., 2000-01
Water Show, Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, 2001
Water and Dreams, Peltz Gallery, Milwaukee, 2000

Awards:
Wisconsin Arts Board, Percent for Art Direct Purchase Award, 2001/05
Art/Design Consultant to the United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Education, 2000
Joseph A. Marino Memorial Purchase Award, Wustum Museum Collection, 1999
Artist in Residence, Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, 1998
Artist in Residence, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, 1998