In Focus | Carl Oltvedt

Carl Oltvedt works full-time as an artist in a variety of painting and drawing media. He retired from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2015, where he was a Professor in the School of Art. He maintains a studio at the California Building located in NE Minneapolis. His paintings and drawings are included in numerous public, corporate, and private collections, including Mia, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND, Rourke Art Gallery & Museum, Moorhead, MN, and the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND.

Oltvedt’s continued interest in the form and behavior of egrets, herons, sandhill cranes, and gulls is the subject of this exhibition. These eight drawings are based on the artist’s own thousands of photographs, taken as Oltvedt follows the migratory seasons of these species in Minnesota. While a drawing originates from a photograph, the artist’s skilled drawing is of primary importance in the work. Oltvedt writes:

“From early on in my career, I have focused much of my creative work on landscape subjects, some of which included birds as a component of the environment. I have always loved watching birds interact with the environment in many ways and have found them to be a greater focus in my work during the past ten years; my eyes have been focused principally on a variety of herons, song birds, gulls, blackbirds, crows, geese, swans and Sandhill cranes.

“My working process often begins with extensive photographic documentation of the birds and the environment they are in; their activity and context will also initiate my beginning to consider compositional ideas. I have particular locations that I go to knowing that there might be a good chance to see a particular species of bird, but I will also take advantage of the presence of other birds that may come into my field of vision. A great deal of time is spent reviewing and editing the multitude of photographs I take as reference, which is both a somewhat slow and also a rich component of my practice. This reflective period of processing ideas may take days, weeks, months, or longer to work through, and is the prelude to beginning my mark making on paper or canvas as I move into greater clarity of purpose in creating the drawings and paintings. In the end, I strive to instill a sense of the presence, personality and spirit of these beautiful creatures in my work.”

In Focus will be on view May 30 - July 4, 2026 at Lowry Hill Gallery. Running concurrently will be Living History, an exhibition of new paintings by Thomas Paquette and a special exhibition of work by Rowan & Bly Pope.