Love of nature inspires local artist

With an exhibit of her work now on display at the Fort Frances Museum, local artist Karen Wilde is hoping people take the time to stop in and see the paintings she’s spent the last three years creating.
“All of my paintings are of someplace that I have visited or seen,” Wilde said Monday. “I usually use acrylic paint to do my landscapes but lately I have been using pen and ink.
“With pen and ink you, just have so much freedom, it is really a very nice medium to work with.
“I had some of my work up at the library a while ago and I was wondering if they did the same at the museum,” continued Wilde. “I spoke with Pam [Hawley] and she told me they did so I brought in my work.”
Still, Wilde had to do a little pleading in order to stage the exhibit.
“I give a lot of my work away as gifts,” she noted. “Most of the pieces that I have at the museum were in the homes of people I had given them to as gifts.
“I had to ask to have them back just so I could use them in the display.”
Admittedly still a novice, Wilde got her start in painting after responding to a newspaper ad that had been placed by accomplished local artist Linda Lovisa.
“There was an ad in the paper saying that Linda would be holding private lessons,” Wilde explained. “I called her and asked if you had to be really experienced to have a lesson. When she told me that you didn’t, I decided to have a few lessons and jumped in with both feet.”
“She taught me a lot about painting,” Wilde added. “She started me at the beginning of a painting and then took me step by step through the process.
“It was a really great way to learn.”
As a grade one teacher at Sixth Street School here, Wilde confessed she finds very little time to spend working on her paintings.
“I am very busy during the school year,” she said. “During the summer, I tend to have a lot more time to spend painting so for now, I paint whenever I have a free moment.
“I realize that I am still quite new and people are not too familiar with me,” Wilde noted. “Eventually, I hope to sell my paintings but for now, I am just happy to get more work out there for people to see.”