Richard Mittelstadt Mittelstadt

           Having taught high school art with a Masters degree, Richard has a diverse background in art materials and processes.  As he worked on his college degrees in art education and studio art, he focused on drawing, printmaking and jewelry making.  While teaching high school art, he concentrated on landscape watercolor painting.  After retiring, Richard turned his attention to acrylic painting.

           Richard enjoys acrylic painting.  As he immerse himself into each creative adventure, Richard often times finds himself feeling transported into another dimension as if time no longer exists and his imagination and hands go about materialize a new image with color, line, texture, a sense of movement, balance, expression, and mood.  With acrylic paints, he can enthusiastically play with abstractionism—creating colorful, expressive, and whimsical forms of landscapes as well as non-objective compositions.  Richard thinks of his artwork as a theatrical production in which the viewer is allowed to temporarily suspend disbelief.  For the viewer, his artwork becomes a momentary distraction—a gift of enchantment, amusement and emotional connection.  

           In the past couple years Richard has been honored with several one-person exhibitions in galleries and public venues as well as numerous awards in juried exhibitions for his acrylic paintings. In August 2018, Richard had a one-person exhibition of his acrylic paintings in the Robbin Gallery in Robbinsdale, MN and in May 2019 he had a one-person exhibition of his acrylic paintings in the FrameWorks Gallery in St. Paul, MN.  In January 2020 he had a solo exhibition in the Rosemount (MN) Steeple Center.

            In April 2018, two of Richard’s acrylic paintings received Award of Excellence in the MN Artists Assoc. Spring Juried Exhibition and the Plymouth (MN) 22nd Annual Primavera Show.  Also in April of that year another acrylic painting was accepted into the juried Lincoln Gallery 2018 National Fine Art Show in Loveland, CO.  In 2019 his acrylic painting, “Pinball Blues,” received Award of Merit for Acrylic Painting in the Burnsville (MN) Visual Arts Society Art Fete and later in July of 2019 in the International Light Space Time Online Gallery ‘Primary Colors’ Art Competition the same painting received 4th Place Award in Overall Top 10 and 2nd Place Award in Painting and Other Media.    In June 2019 two paintings received Special Merit Awards in the Light Space & Time Online 9th Annual ‘Landscapes’ Art Exhibition. In October 2019 in the International Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery ‘Patterns and Textures’ Art Competition “Passing Through” received Special Merit Award and “Resonance” received 7th Place Award in Painting and Other Media.  In March 2020 in the Light Space Time International Online Gallery ‘Abstract’ Art Competition “Mysterious” took Overall First Place out of 1,005 entries and “In Motion” received a Merit Award in Painting and Other Media.  Also in March of 2020 acrylic painting, “April Showers,” received Award of Excellence in the Robbin Gallery Juried March Madness Exhibition and acrylic painting, “Spinning Out of Control,” received a Merit Award in the Minnesota Artists Association Membership Juried Exhibition.