KAREN BOSSICK ~ FOR THE TIMES-NEWS

HAILEY • When other teenagers were shopping at the mall, Ginna Lagergren was sitting on a hill near her home studying light.

She studied the way light struck various objects. And she studied how the landscape changed over time, depending on whether the light was hitting it directly or backlighting it.

When she moved to Hailey in 1971, she made use of what she had learned.

She camped out in the Sawtooth Mountains on frosty winter nights when the temperature dipped into single digits to get just the right sunrise glow on the snow-cloaked mountaintops.

And she ventured out in the river bottom along Trail Creek at dawn to get just the right tint on arrowleaf balsamroot dancing in the breeze.

Lagergren’s attention to light and energy showed through in her pet portraits, as the pet owners told her that the paintings embodied the essence of their beloved pet’s energy.

“Her outdoor scenes and pet portraits have a great emotional appeal to people,” said fellow artist Lynn Toneri, who exhibited Lagergren’s work at her Ketchum gallery.

“They seem to exhibit an energy you don’t find in some paintings.”

Now Lagergren is taking her attention to energy into the abstract. Her new paintings, which she has categorized as “Quantum Energy, Light and Color,” explore energy, light and color through both abstraction and realism.

“I feel there is an energy transfer between all matter and beings and my new works reflect that,” she said. “Also, as a colorist, my fascination with the theory of quantum energy has expanded to my own theory of relativity of color and light relating to energy and forms. Matter and beings appear solid because the surfaces are reflecting light and color. But, in fact, they are microscopic bits of moving quantum energy in space.”

Lagergren credits her artistic talent in part to good genes. Her great aunt Ethel Parsons Paullin, who taught Lagergren to draw the proportions of the head at age 8, was among the first women to be listed in “Who’s Who in American Art.”

Paullin’s murals and stained glass work can still be seen on the ceilings of St. Bartholomew’s Church across from the Waldorf Astoria and the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, as well as the Federal Building in Albany, N.Y.

Lagergren’s other great aunt Elsie Parsons was a master jewelry maker whose work is featured in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Lagergren herself began painting at 3. While her friends played with their Barbie dolls, she took the bus 25 miles from her home in Detroit to the Museum of Fine Art where she copied paintings of the Old Masters, trying to figure out how they created three-dimensional faces on flat surfaces.

“I remember thinking, ‘Playing is fun, but creating art is essential,’ ” Lagergren recalled.

She painted her first commissioned piece at 16.

Lagergren has received national acclaim for her mastery of light and color evident in her oils and pastels of Silver Creek, the Boulder Mountains and other environs.

In 2003, she was commissioned to paint “The Heart of Idaho” on an Easter egg for the White House presidential library. She spent a hundred hours creating a scene of two labrador retrievers and a bald eagle against the backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains with a brush as fine as a scalpel.

She also has 23 paintings at the Mountain Home Air Force Base Hospital, including a 28-foot mural of the Sawtooth Mountains. Other corporate collectors include Albertson’s and Bank of America. And her work has been represented by several galleries, including Kneeland Gallery in Ketchum and galleries in Seattle, Boise, Las Vegas, Nev. and Davis, Calif.

On occasion, she appeals to the fantastical, painting a big horn sheep superimposed over mountains or rivers running through a horse’s body. She also lets her paintings spill over into the picture frames and carved frames.  ~~

KETCHUM • SUN VALLEY • HAILEY

VALLEY

MAGAZINE      WINTER / SPRING 1993

FOR ASPIRING ARTISTS

Ginna Lagergren has long delighted the art world with her large floral canvases of irises and poppies from her own garden and her sensitively rendered landscapes. Describing her work as "realism with a style," Lagergren is admittedly fascinated by the way in which images come to life through a layering of suggestive brushstrokes. These "scribble" strokes become, for this artist, a tool, imparting vitality and spirit to her work. Represented locally at Kneeland Gallery for the last six years, Lagergren's work can also be seen at the Tivoli Gallery in Salt Lake City, the Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, California, as well as the Kneeland Gallery's Las Vegas location. Her outstanding reputation earned for this artist one of only 20 invitations extended by the Eideljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, to exhibit work in a summer show entitled "Facets of the West."

Luckily for area dabblers, Lagergren has developed a love for teaching. Asked by the Sun Valley Center to teach a course in the winter of 1991, Lagergren shared with eager students her understanding of technique and color using soft pastels. The following winter's drawing studio, also conducted in pastel, was so popular that the Center asked her to follow with a Plein Air class last summer. This session afforded amateur artists the precious opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while recording their experience and impressions, using either pastel or oil.  Lagergren is equally versed in both media.

By virtue of this experience, Lagergren has settled into a comfortable and successful teaching style. Her systematic approach blends communication with inspiration, and her infectious enthusiasm encourages dedication. It is no surprise, then, that Lagergren has attracted a substantial following. In order to accommodate devoted students impatient for another session, the artist began offering private lessons two years ago.

A class with this extraordinary teacher is apt to take the student outdoors in the summer months to paint the area's inspirational surroundings. As this type of outing is not always possible or convenient in winter, Lagergren might choose instead to teach landscape technique from photographs during these months. For Lagergren, however, winter also offers an opportunity to master "arrangements," the term she prefers to describe what is commonly known as "still lifes." Lagergren considers these "set-ups" the perfect foil for teaching a student, particularly a beginner, how to see color and light.

Lagergren insists that, once explained, the principles guiding these properties open a whole new world for the artist. She credits artist George Carlson, under whom she studied for more than 150 hours, with her own understanding of these properties. While Lagergren had long been aware of the chameleon-like effect of the sun on color, it was Carlson who supplied the scientific principles responsible. According to Lagergren, much of the "magic" we associate with good art is explained by basic physics. As such, she has developed an outline detailing these essentials, which she hands to her students at the very first class.

Lagergren's aim is to arm the student with an arsenal of techniques and strokes. She encourages her students to interpret each subject in their own way and she happily helps to unlock the unique personality of each. She endeavors to show the student that it is possible to bring life to art by transferring the spirit of an object. She emphasizes that it is this translation on the part of the artist that gives a piece vitality and meaning.

The average session lasts three hours but can run as long as the student requires. Lagergren tries to remain flexible so as not to disrupt the momentum and learning process. Students provide their own materials according to the extensive list developed and dictated by Lagergren. Although she does not yet work with children, she is able to instruct any level artist, from beginner to advanced.

If you are eager to revive a dormant talent, Lagergren can provide the instruction and inspiration necessary. For more information, contact Ginna Lagergren at (208) 788-2453. ~~

TRANSPLANTED ARTIST - Ginna Lagergren, who came west 20 years ago, ends up painting the landscapes she visits.
The oil painting above is titled "Upriver Flow."

Hailey artist hooked on nature

By SUSAN BROOKS
Wood River Journal  -  June 1991

Over 20 years ago, local artist Ginna Lagergren traveled to the Wood River Valley in a classic way.

Lagergren hopped in her Volkswagen Bus and headed west. According to Lagergren, she was unsure of her exact destination - she wanted to end up in an area surrounded by nature.

"(I) try to stay close to nature," said Lagergren. "Painting is my primary focus of life - it is important to me to connect it with nature."

Lagergren's work is mostly oils and pastels, although she has experimented with many other mediums. The artist has been exhibiting in the Kneeland Gallery since 1986, and is currently showing at the Ketchum Ranger District Office on Sun Valley Road. The ranger district features a different artist every month – Lagergren’s work will be up on the walls for another week.

The artist also exhibits in galleries in four other states, and has commissioned works on display in various homes and institutions.

"I have a 28-foot mural at the Mountain Home Air Force Base Hospital," said the Hailey resident. "The only guidelines they gave me, when they commissioned me, were to paint mountains. I had taken a photograph of the Sawtooth Mountains which I had wanted to paint for a while - it was perfect."

The base approved the design, and from there, Lagergren spent six weeks nonstop painting the seven panels, each 4 feet by 4 feet.

Lagergren spends most of her free time active in the wilderness. The artist thoroughly enjoys skiing - both backcountry and downhill - kayaking and mountain biking, and ends up painting the places she visits.

"Being in nature gives me a special sensation," said Lagergren. "That sensation parallels what I feel when I transpose a landscape. The spirit of landscapes and painting is the same feeling I get when going through powder or water. I get the same gut-level of excitement."

Lagergren has experienced the deep feeling of painting since she was a young adolescent. She began painting with oils at the age of 12, and pastels when she was 15. Artists run in her family.

Lagergren had always been interested in art, yet it wasn't until a professor told her to paint "with the feeling in her stomach" that she knew-exactly what her teacher meant and realized painting would become predominant in her life.

The Detroit native also paints portraits.

"It's a natural phenomenon that allows me to capture the spirit of the person and transfer that onto paper - it is an intuitive gift," said Lagergren.

Ever since her trip to the valley, Lagergren has never regretted leaving the Midwest. She reflects on the feeling that the people from the Midwest's basis of reference is on materialism.

Here, said the Detroit native, the primary reference is the surrounding environment.  ~~

EXPRESS
A GUIDE TO ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT & RECREATION
Wednesday February 26, 1997
By Rochelle Reed - Express Staff

Learn to
       Listen,
       Learn to
                      See

• Most of us take listening and seeing for granted. How foolish we are! As a local artist and a Utah musician point out in classes here this weekend, many of us miss the subtleties inherent in both senses. Yet all it takes is commitment and a little training to see and hear the world as a deeper, richer place.

On Seeing:

"Look at that wall," says artist Ginna Lagergren, pointing to one of the blank white walls of the Sun Valley Center's conference room.

I see a white—perhaps off-white—wall. Not Ginna. She sees a green cast in one corner, a brown tint in the other. Then she looks through the door into the gallery and sees shades of pinkish-violet and greenish-blue on walls that were definitely painted from a can labeled White.

This is why Lagergren is an artist. She sees not just white walls but the light cast on them. Her visual world is richer than that of most people. But she insists an artist isn't born seeing colors when the rest of us notice only basic shades. "You learn this from observing" she says brightly, her delicate silver earrings swinging to and fro. "Very few people naturally tend to observe. It's a skill that is taught"

In her SVC workshop this week Drawing & Seeing/Back to the basics, Lagergren teaches not only the ability to recognize colors in reflected light but she demystifies the skills of measuring, perspective and shading.

If she were lecturing about carpentry or seeing, these skills would be called tricks of the trade. Like holding up a pencil or thumb to measure the height of mountains, when drawing a landscape. Or creating dimension by sketching hatch lines for shading. Lagergren's students will benefit from her many studies with well-known artists and her experience as a teacher. In fact, she promises to make drawing seem almost easy.

The workshop begins tomorrow night with a lecture/demonstration, then continues Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with hands-on work by participants, materials provided. Adults and high school students are welcome; tuition is $150 or $125 for SVC members. Call 726-9491 to register.

In the arts by Marcia Mode Stavros

With natural beauty offering inspiration at every turn, it is little wonder that so many artists would want to live in the Wood River Valley. A career in art generally provides a capricious income at best, however, and the need to market their work often leads artists away from small towns to larger cities. We are fortunate to have in our midst a veritable tribe of working artists - people of talent and vision who not only add thought-provoking and beautiful accents to our daily lives, but who are willing to share what they know with us. Through their generosity, in fact, it is possible to receive a well-rounded arts education here even if it is not one that is officially recognized by a diploma.

   Several artists hold classes in their own studios. A private student in Ginna Parsons Lagergren's studio is surrounded by walls and easels filled with realistic and abstract images of wild animals, Idaho landscapes, flowers, faces, and commissioned portraits of family pets. Other memorable pieces have been created in this room and sent out into the world: an intricately painted egg that went to the White House, a twenty-eight foot mural for Mountain Home Air Force Base, and a large painting of children that first flashed before the artist's eyes while she was driving along a highway during a snowstorm.

   Lagergren's students have a passion for art, a serious yearning to "see," and an acknowledged need for an experienced teacher. Several professional artists have studied with Lagergren, who excels at imparting the laws of color and light. Her teaching methods range from in-depth written materials explaining the physics of light (comparable to readings for a college-level class) to simple demonstrations such as showing how light bounces off construction paper in different ways.

   Born in Detroit and influenced by a great-aunt who was a well-known muralist, Lagergren holds degrees in art, drafting, and structural design. She has lived in Idaho for the past thirty years.


10 sun valley magazine | THE ARTS  2004

February 5, 1992
Mike Leslie, Curator
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art
500 West Washington St.
White River State Park
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2707


Dear Mr. Leslie:

I am writing you with regard to Ginna Lagergren. She recently shared with me the news that she'd been selected to participate in your upcoming exhibition of this summer, and of her proposal to you to run a workshop at that time.

Ginna has run two workshops through the Sun Valley Center for the Arts & Humanities. In one workshop the focus was the landscape, in the other the still life. Both workshops were successful in terms of participation and results. She delivered, in a brief twelve hour class format an enormous amount of information covering background and history of the pastel medium and safety information as well as a series of skilled demonstrations accompanied by technical commentary. Her sense of organization was clearly the key to covering so much in such a brief time. Explanations were clear and concise and supported by a packet of handouts that participants could review independently. She proceeded at a pace that was appropriate and workable for both beginners and more advanced students. As projects got underway, Ginna worked with each individual giving thoughtful critique and providing solutions, suggestions and encouragement. She was clearly excited by the energy and the progress that her students were obviously experiencing.

Overall she created an atmosphere of excitement and confidence in which all students had an opportunity to experience success and growth. But more importantly she communicated and demonstrated the joy of the artistic experience in which students everywhere need to participate and witness.

I feel certain that Ginna's efforts in a workshop setting could be an exciting and worthwhile possibility for all. Let me know if there is any other information that I can provide.

Kind regards,

Sally Brock
Director of Humanities & Community Programs


POST OFFICE BOX 656 SUN VALLEY, IDAHO 83353 208/726-9491 FAX 208/726-2344

By KAREN BOSSICK
The Wood River Journal - Sun Valley
 July 11, 2007

When other teenagers were shopping at the mall, Ginna Lagergren was sitting on a hill near her home studying light. She studied the way light struck various objects. And she studied how the landscape changed over time, depending on whether the light was hitting or directly or backlighting it. When she moved to Idaho in 1971, she made use of what she had learned.

She camped out in the Sawtooth Mountains on frosty winter nights when the temperature dipped into single digits to get just the right glow on the snow-cloaked mountaintops as the sun rose in the morning. And she ventured out in the river bottom along Trail Creek in the evening to get just the right tint on the arrowleaf balsamroot dancing in the breeze. Lagergren's attention to the beauty around her can clearly be seen in the paintings that she will show this weekend at the Ketchum Arts Festival.

Lagergren will be one of a hundred local artists who will show her work at the fair, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday at Festival Meadows next to Our Lady of Snows Catholic Church on Sun Valley Road. "I believe my role in this lifetime is to make art. It sounds simple but it brings a lot of joy to people," she says. "To me my artwork is a way of creating positive energy, which we sorely need in this world."

Lagergren, who lives in Hailey, traces her artistic genius in part to good genes. Her great aunt Ethel Parsons Paullin, who taught Lagergren to draw the proportions of the head at age 8, was among the first women to be listed in "Who's Who in American Art." Paullin's murals and stained glass work can still be seen on the ceilings of St. Bartholomew's Church across from the Waldorf Astoria and the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, as well as the Federal Building in Albany, N.Y.

Lagergren's other great aunt Elsie Parsons was a jewelry maker whose work is featured in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Inspired by her family lineage, Lagergren began seriously painting at age 3. "I was born to paint—clearly. I thought, 'Playing is fun but creating art is essential,'" she recalls. On weekends when her friends were playing with their Barbie dolls, Lagergren would take the bus 25 miles from her home to the Museum of Fine Art in Detroit. There she would copy paintings of the Old Masters and try to figure out how they had created three-dimensional faces on flat surfaces.

She graduated from high school at the height of the Expressionist movement when arts programs were more about throwing paint on canvas than the impressionistic paintings Lagergren reveled in. So she bypassed formal art training in college to study with individual artists— many of them who gave workshops through the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Pretty soon she found herself teaching classes at that same Center.

And she began receiving national acclaim for the mastery of light and color evident in her oils and pastels. Lagergren's love of hiking in the mountains, sea kayaking along the Alaskan Coast and swimming with the dolphins in the Caribbean is evident in her vivid landscapes of Silver Creek, the Boulder Mountains and the world beyond. "She has a very diverse wide range of styles, but she's known for her outdoors and plein air painting," says Lynn Toneri, who has exhibited Lagergren's work at her Toneri Hink Gallery in Ketchum. "She does a lot of Idaho outdoor scenes that have a great emotional appeal to people."

Often, Lagergren appeals to the fantastical. She'll paint mountains embodied in the body of a ram. Or she'll paint rivers running through a horse's body. Then she'll let her paintings spill over into the picture frames and carved wall hangings of pine trees, mountains and ocean waves that meld with her paintings. After she painted six larger-than-life fiberglass dogs to raise money for the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, the American Egg Board commissioned her to paint an Easter egg for the White House. The egg, which Lagergren titled "the Heart of Idaho," depicts two Labrador retrievers" chasing after geese and a bald eagle against the backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley. The tiny fragile canvas even depicts the Salmon River, syringa, aspens, pines and wildflowers.

"It's very exciting, very exciting to have a piece of art displayed in a presidential library" says Lagergren, who painted the egg with a brush as fine, as a scalpel. Lagergren's work was represented by the 'Kneeland Gallery for 15 years and later by the Wood River Gallery. She also has 23 paintings at the Mountain Home Air Force Base Hospital, including a 28-foot mural of the Sawtooth Mountains. Other corporate collectors include Albertson's, Bank of America, First Bank of Idaho and Halley Medical Clinic, which has 16 paintings and carvings,

More recently, she has made her paintings available as archival-quality giclee prints on canvas. Giclee involves the direct digital transfer of an image to canvas without any loss of clarity of color and image. The Provo, Utah, printer Lagergren works with scanned museum pieces and does much of the printing for the Mormon Church. The printer scans her original art-work on canvas in three different sizes.

"What's so outstanding about the giclee is that the quality is so superior to anything I've seen before," she says. "People look at it and say, 'That's not a print. That's got to be an original.' The giclee is printed on canvas and the quality and color is so vibrant it looks original, yet I can sell it at just a quarter, of the price of an original. That means I can make my work available to a wider audience than ever before."