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Aleta KarstadAleta Karstad  
2-d Nature Art
 
Born in Guelph, Ontario in 1951, Aleta learned her love of nature through helping her wildlife pathologist father, Lars Karstad, with travels and field work. After the three-year Fine Arts course at Central Technical School, Toronto, where she studied watercolour under Doris McCarthy, she began work in biological illustration at the National Museum of Canada, and in 1973, married biologist Frederick W. Schueler.

Fred and Aleta have been residents of Bishops Mills, Ontario since 1978. When they're not keeping track of local natural history, they're on art & science expeditions elsewhere in Ontario, or anywhere from the Maritimes to BC.

Aleta writes, draws, and paints outdoors, as the most direct way of communicating the essence of a time and place. Her mission is to teach people to love and learn about the land and its inhabitants.

Aleta's books (Canadian Nature Notebook (1979), Wild Seasons Daybook (1985), North Moresby Wilderness (1990) and A Place to Walk (1995). More recently Aleta and Fred have been self-publishing on the natural history of particular areas, illustrated with Aleta's plein air paintings as part of their partnerships with citizen's groups and conservation organizations, notably Art and Science in the South Nation Watershed (2011) and Island of Biodiversity (2012). You can find these and other books and calendars at their publishing house, "Library of One Thing and Another" http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/karstad

The 40 year archive of her illustrated journals are an important source of watercolours and drawings for published books, her own, and those of others.

Aleta has been participating in and organizing art camps for conservation since the 1990's, and most recently for CPAWS-OV's successful campaign to protect the Dumoine River in Quebec. She was awarded the Canadian Wildlife Federation's Robert Bateman Award in 2018 for conservation through art.

She teaches both children and adults that even if they think they cannot draw or write effectively, the elements of the ‘journal page' support each other in a pleasingly unified work of art that is a permanent record of its place and time.

Aleta paints in two media: Oil on canvas and watercolour: Her small oil pieces are painted en plein air on location, and her larger, commissioned pieces are painted in the studio. Her watercolours are small, highly detailed portraits of plants and animals, and large studio watercolours, highly magnified arrangements of beachcombed objects

Aleta sells her original works both personally, and through her website http:/www.aletakarstad.com.
You can see her full body of oil paintings since 2010 on her blog at http://www.karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com




 
Support for Conservation:
Aleta Karstad and her husband Fred Schueler are active members of the Ontario Road Ecology Group, South Nation Conservation Fish & Wildlife Committee, the Ontario Rivers Alliance, the Canadian Herpetological Society, and the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Conservation Committee. In 2014 they surveyed & painted river crossings of the proposed Energy East pipeline - http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/ .
Much of their public work has been helping citizen's groups fend off ecologically inappropriate “developments” in their backyards, an enterprise which has been, on the whole, surprisingly successful: Cumshewa Head remains unlogged, the Crystal Bay Fowler's Toads are condominium-free, the mechano-portage is not at Fitzroy Harbour, and the North Russell quarry is not landfilled.

Aleta was awarded the Robert Bateman Award for conservation through art, by the Canadian Wildlife Federation in 2018.
 
Special Achievements:
  • 2018 - Robert Bateman Award
    http://cwf-fcf.org/en/about-cwf/awards/robert-bateman-award.html
    In commemoration of its 50th anniversary, CWF established “The Robert Bateman Award” to recognize an individual or group who has furthered the awareness of and/or appreciation for Canada’s wildlife and habitats through artistic expression.
     

 

 
 
Direct Correspondence to:Aleta Karstad
 
Aleta Karstad
c/o Aleta Karstad
6 St-Lawrence St., Bishops Mills, RR#2
Oxford Station, Ontario
Canada K0G 1T0
Tel: (613) 258-3107
  Worldwide Nature Artists Group
Email: karstad@pinicola.ca
Home Page: http://www.aletakarstad.com
Aleta Karstad Aleta Karstad

 
All rights reserved. All images and text © Copyright 2024 Aleta Karstad - Member of the Artists for Conservation Foundation (Formerly the Worldwide Nature Artists Group) www.natureartists.com. This site represents the original artwork
(nature art and wildlife art) of nature artist and wildlife artist
of Aleta Karstad and is protected by international copyright laws.
Use of nature art, wildlife art or any other images or text from this site, requires permission in writing from Aleta Karstad (Aleta Karstad).

This site is part of the Artists for Conservation (AFC) Web site. (Wildlife Art - Nature Art - Conservation) Artists for Conservation is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to nature art, wildlife art and conservation. On this site you will find world-class nature art and wildlife art by today's leading nature artists & wildlife artists. The AFC site is the Web's premier location for nature art, wildlife artists All content appearing in pages featuring Aleta Karstad is the sole responsibility of Aleta Karstad. The opinions expressed on these artists' pages are those of Aleta Karstad and do not necessarily reflect those of the Artists for Conservation Foundationi (AFC).