Steve Carpenter

“I bring life to my pictures by using marks, layers, and color in order to create a history. Spots of color are worked over and over, both pleasing and disappointing areas of the picture. The picture is complete when I can walk away from the drawing and feel no need to pick, scratch, or add another mark.”

Carpenters landscapes are easily recognizable because of their vibrant colors. The colors are vigorous and experimental with brilliant magentas, blues, purples, and splashes of yellows. He intensifies the natural color of our surrounding landscape. To achieve his desired coloration while maintaining the freedom to draw, Steven Carpenter works primarily in pastel. His works are created in the studio and are a combination of reality and imagination. Sometimes motivation is drawn from visits to museums where he absorbs the colors of Klimt and Monet.

His innovative use of color was inspired by a trip to the Far East during his college years. Art was his field of study and he completed his BA in 1982 at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He has also studied at Soochow University, National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan; the Chienmai University in Chienmai, Thailand; and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Through the years he has been an art instructor with several organizations; the Faribault School for the Deaf, Faribault, MN, and at various schools in Community Education, St. Paul, MN. He was also an artist in residence at St. Olaf College.

Carpenter has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Minnesota and Wisconsin and his works have received numerous awards. Selected prizes and awards include the Award of Excellence at the Northern Lights Exhibition, 1983; the Exhibition Award from the Lutheran Brotherhood, 1982; and the Purchase Award from the Lutheran Brotherhood in 1980. His works are included in many private and corporate collections:

Universities and Colleges

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul

University of Wisconsin, Madison

University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota

St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota

Corporate Collections

Honeywell

3M

US Bank

Norwest Bank

IBM

Pillsbury

Park Bank, Minneapolis

Park Dental, Minneapolis

Lutheran Brotherhood

Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis

GMAC Minneapolis

Northwest Airlines, Minneapolis

Carpenter currently resides in St. Paul with his wife and two young children.