Brilliant color, bold experimentation in mixed media mark Lindemann exhibit

Show at Kiesling House runs through Nov. 18

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--Brilliant colors, mixed media and, for the most part, compelling abstract shapes tell the viewer that it's artwork from the brush of Ruth Lindemann.

An exhibition of a selection of her works opens today at the Council for the Arts in New Ulm Kiesling House Gallery for a November run. An artist's reception will be held from 2-4 p.m.

The show will run for three weekends, through Nov. 18. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Appointments to view at other times can be made.

It's the second CANU exhibition of the New Ulm artist, and her works also have been exhibited at Alexandria.

"It's fun to do this show," Lindemann said, who will have 36 pieces on display.

"I've got a lot that are non-objective (abstract) and some that are representational," she said. "Most were done over a period of years and not specifically for this show."

Lindemann had another "non-objective" piece, titled "Steam Pipe," scheduled for the show, but through connections she made on a trip to England, she recently sold the "colorful, abstracted view of a steam pipe" to a university professor, Mark Pink, for his office in London.

"It's kind of exciting to think that someone has my art in England," she chuckled.

One of her part-representational, part-abstract, colorful paintings is of the rye mill, next to the Goosetown fire station, that burned. It's crisply titled, "Burning of the Mill."

"I took a lot of pictures of the fire," Lindemann relates, "and used them to make this painting."

She paints in watercolor, acrylics and mixtures of each. In addition, she will incorporate colored Crayons and colored pencils, and quite a few are collages.

Recently she has been doing a lot of painting on rice paper which gives the paintings a unique "look."

"I do quite a bit of experimentation, working with this and that," she said, "but mainly I do it for the fun of painting."

She also loves to teach so she conducts a number of workshops and teaches art technique at the Senior Center and in community education courses.

Lindemann, who recently turned 72, approaches her painting projects with enthusiasm that belies her age. However, her passion for color is tied solely to her painting.

"People ask me if I dye my hair," Lindemann said. "Please tell them I don't; this is my natural color."