Newburg show opens Saturday

Artist's style is

traditional, realistic

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- While her most recent painting is a still-life built around a violin, titled "A Love Song," New Ulm artist June Edleman Newburg most often reaches back to her South Dakota roots to portray western themes.

Her oil paintings and pencil prints will be displayed at the Council for the Arts in New Ulm Kiesling House Gallery, 220 N. Minnesota St., for the next three weekends, starting Saturday and ending Sunday, May 19.

An artist's reception will be held at the gallery from 7-9 p.m. today. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays.

"I was born and raised in South Dakota so I love the wide-open spaces where I can feel free," Newburg explained. "My family has been so supportive of my artwork, and many of them have served as my models. The Lucio family from the Lower Sioux Agency near Morton has also served as models for me, and these also are included in the show."

Her brother, who still lives in South Dakota , shows up as a cowboy in several of her paintings and pencil prints.

The focal point of this show, however, is the violin piece, from which she has had 250 Limited Edition prints made. It is the sixth oil to be turned into a Limited Edition print, and she has had open edition prints made from five pencil prints.

"I paint in a traditional, realistic style, and oil is my favorite media," Newburg explained. Although she also works in pencil and colored pencil, those works are becoming more difficult to do because of the arthritis in her hands.

Newburg, who moved with her family to New Ulm some 15 years ago, has been painting for more than 30 years. With her recent retirement from the accessories department in Herberger's, where she worked for over 13 years, Newburg now has more time to devote to her painting and pencil drawing.

Self-taught, Newburg has gained much of her art knowledge through "countless hours of experimentation and listening to judges' critiques." She said a long-time interest in art has brought her to her current, detailed, realism style.

This is her seventh one-artist show, having previous shows at Huron, S.D., Blaine, Morris, Glenwood and Fairmont where she had two shows. She's had a rotating art display at Herberger's in New Ulm and has been juried into the Watertown (S.D.) Wildlife and Western Art Festival for 20 years.

One of her paintings, "Dog Tired," was published on the cover of a South Bay Outfitters of New York catalog. She has paintings in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Brazil. Her art also can be found in several library system collections, including Viking, Traverse des Sioux and New Ulm.

Her art also can be seen on her web site at mnartists.org>Visual Arts>Painter>June Newburg.