Heather Friedli is Saint Paul’s premiere contemporary impressionistic artist. Friedli’s paintings represent places she has explored in her yearly “Artventures” in the woods, rivers, and beyond. Her experiences in the landscape dictate brush strokes in these imaginative and brilliant paintings.
Heather’s work includes beautifully illustrative landscapes of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and the North Shore as well as her travels in the United States including her 2010 Appalachian Trail thru-hike. Friedli is best known for her contemporary impressionist oil paintings, drawing on her family’s native Anishinaabe heritage and the land in which she lives. Bold strokes and brilliant colors light up scenes of cloudscapes, water, and native flora and fauna. Many pieces are created in the context of her wilderness adventures- she seeks to create work that shares with the viewer the experience of immersion in the landscape and escape into the healing beauty of nature. Within these kinesthetic and contextual works, Friedli explores the spiritual world through the lens of culture and lived experience of place. Her work is creative, soulful, bold, and powerful.
Heather Friedli was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1982. She grew up half her childhood with her mom and grandmother in Los Angeles CA and Albuquerque NM, absorbing the colors, beauty, and culture of the Southwest; then moved and lived her second half of childhood with her aunt, and uncle in Luxembourg LUX and Detroit MI. She graduated with a Fibers & Textiles degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2005. In 2010 Heather thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, the completion of which inspired her to create a series of works highlighting her family’s native Odawa and Mexican Heritages within impressionistic and dreamlike natural landscapes. She continues to explore the earth through Artventures and wilderness travels both with her family and solo. She currently lives and works in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her husband and two kids.
Heather will be offering a free workshop for all ages on Friday, September 22, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Meet at Chik-Wauk Nature Center with your sketchbook and walking shoes to explore the trails.
Together you will discover local flora and fauna, learn about the wilderness, and do field sketching from the land.
The workshop is free and limited to 12 participants.
You can sign up ahead of time by calling 218-388-9915 or sending an email – to info@gunflinthistory.org, before September 20.