Richard Mittelstadt is a very talented Minnesota artist who has entered and placed in many of the gallery’s art competitions. Rick retired from teaching secondary art education and now retired, his goal is to establish himself as a reemerging artist. Besides earning several awards his intaglio prints, drawings, and watercolor paintings over the past several decades, he received the Award of Excellence in acrylic painting in the Burnsville Visual Arts Society 2010 Art Fete and First Place Award in Water Media in the Savage Arts Council 2010 Juried Art Competition for the same acrylic painting, “Rocky Coast.” More recently Rick has received a second place award and several recognition awards in the Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery.

Rick earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education and a Master of Arts Degree in studio art. He retired from Rosemount High School in 2008 after teaching secondary art education for 38 years. During his teaching tenure he taught an extensive range of art processes including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic arts, ceramics, jewelry making, and fiber arts.

During his tenure as an educator, Rick wrote a vast amount of curriculum documents and booklets for his classes and was also utilized by the school district’s art curriculum standards. He was the art department chairperson for 35 years had serviced on numerous advisory councils as well as curriculum, art competition, building design, and state sponsored arts graduation standards committees.

When Rick was not teaching, his interests eventually turned to printmaking, acrylic and watercolor landscape painting and, more recently, digital landscape photography. Over the years Rick has been experimenting with using a variety of other materials such as colored pencil, chalks, markers, etc. in combination with watercolor and acrylic paints.

“I enjoy using drawing and painting materials to capture the scenic beauty of our natural world. I take most pleasure in working with watercolor and acrylic to capture a mood or momentary feeling in a landscape scene. I especially enjoy the magic that happens through my brushes. My best resources are the wild animals, farms, fields, lakes, streams, hills, and forests of mountain, coastal, and northern-tier states. There the subjects for paintings are endless and never mundane.

When my artwork is finished, not only do I want to enjoy my own creation but I also hope to provide the viewers of my work an opportunity to be briefly distracted from whatever is on their minds—a momentary gift of enchantment and amusement.”

Rick’s portfolio can be viewed here www.mittelstadtartworks.com