HILLSIDE LECTURE “The importance of painting from life" Jan Norsetter

“A Journey, Not a Destination; the importance of painting from life”
Jan Norsetter Plein Air Painter

Unlike painting from photographs the amount of information available when painting from life is nearly unlimited. Being present at the scene, influenced by weather, sounds, and changing light allows the artist the freedom to interpret all that information as an impression of that specific moment in time. Do you want to show your viewer the importance of what you see and feel or do you want to recreate a photograph?

Artist Jan Norsetter is an award-winning oil painter known for vibrant landscape paintings en plein air and evocatively detailed studies in still life. Norsetter also practices the decorative art of rosemaling, using skill and an artist’s sensibility to embellish items traditional and modern in an age-old form. Norsetter sets up her easel in the open air, working outdoors surrounded by a world that imbues her paintings with a sense of place. Her landscapes capture exact but imaginative views of countryside in every season—close to home in Wisconsin and the US, France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Norway. She often uses blog posts to record progress on a series of paintings and impressions of a particular location. Norsetter holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fine arts and art education. In addition to her work as an artist, she teaches landscape painting and rosemaling. Four Wisconsin-based galleries represent Norsetter’s work: Pink Llama Gallery in Cedarburg, River Arts Gallery in Prairie du Sac, Paoli Road Mercantile, Paoli, and Woodland Studios in Stoughton.