Views from the Car Window | Fred Anderson

For nearly thirty years, Anderson has worked in the plein air tradition, travelling the back roads and neighborhood lanes of rural and small-town Minnesota near his home in Cambridge. His long and intimate relationship with the Minnesota landscape is reflected in the sense of familiarity in his work.

Anderson’s studio is his 2011 Honda Civic. The challenges of landscape painting from his car include losing paintbrushes between the seats and suspicious onlookers, though his magnetic sign stating “F. Anderson Studio, Cambridge, MN” has helped with the latter interruptions. In this exhibition of gouache paintings, Anderson has introduced a new brightness that encourages a back and forth between a defined foreground and a transparent, whispering background. Propelled by the spontaneity of his mobile studio, Anderson paints intentionally, depicting places from his everyday life, and beginning and finishing paintings on site. Regarded as a group, it serves as a record of memorable encounters with light, composition, and landscape.

Anderson says his choice of subject matter is “almost unconscious.” He explains:

“I usually catch a pattern of lights and darks out of the corner of my eye that appeals to me, and then I try to paint it. Hopefully my paintings are an honest and simple response to the beauty I see in the world.”

“All that matters is I just want to paint.” – Fred Anderson, 2024

Artist Profile:
Fred Anderson is a Minnesota native who currently lives and works in Cambridge, Minnesota. A predominantly self-educated artist, Anderson has been painting since the mid- 1980’s. Anderson travels throughout East Central Minnesota in his car which he dubbed his “mobile atelier.” He uses the car as a studio and observation point. He begins and finishes each painting on location, usually returning over several days to the same site. His small, precise landscapes can be seen as descriptive portraits of a specific time and place. There is a quiet intimacy in his paintings that reveals a long and familiar relationship with the Minnesota landscape. Anderson’s work is included in numerous Minnesota private and corporate collections including General Mills, Securian and Anderson Windows. Anderson was the recipient of a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship grant from the East Central Arts Council.

Presented alongside: INTERSECTIONS | Wendell Arneson

Gallery Hours:
Tuesdays - Saturdays 12 to 5