The Art of
Aleta Karstad


Naturalist-artist ALETA KARSTAD was born (1951) and grew up in Guelph, Ontario, but lived as a girl in Wisconsin and Georgia as her father studied wildlife pathology. Her formal art training was at Central Technical School, Toronto, where she studied watercolour under Doris McCarthy. In 1972 she began work in biological illustration at the National Museum of Canada.





Aleta's books (Canadian Nature Notebook (1979), Wild Seasons Daybook (1985), North Moresby Wilderness (1990) and A Place to Walk (1995) have been drawn from her illustrated natural history journals, and since 1995 she has been teaching her method of combining drawings, watercolours, and lettering, on archival-quality materials to make a permanent record of a place and time.





Aleta's easel paintings catch rhythm and movement in nature: trees gesture, snow reflects the sky, lines and colours appear to move on the canvas. She prefers to paint outdoors, to see and feel the depth and movement and the quality of time and place that she seeks to communicate through her art. Her mission is to teach people to love the land and its inhabitants.







For prices, availability, and commissions, contact:
bckcdb@istar.ca








Watercolours
by Aleta Karstad


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RECENT PAINTINGS


[Apple tree]

"August Drought" (Bishops Mills, Ontario - 16 August 2001)
16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas



[Lythrum salicaria]

"Purple Loosestrife" (Baxter Conservation Area, Kars, Ontario - 16 July 2001)
10 x14 inches, oil on canvas



[Asclepias syriaca]

"Milkweed in Bloom" (Bishops Mills, Ontario - 2 July 2001)
10 x 20 inches, oil on canvas



[Calamagrostis canadensis]

"Calamagrostis Native" (grass in the wind by Scotts' lane, Bishops Mills, Ontario - 19 June 2001) 12 x 24 inches, oil on canvas



[Moccassin Flower]
[Gnarly Dead Ironwood)
[Mer Bleu Bog)