The change of seasons is bringing a lineup of fall-themed attractions to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, with a range of events for landscape professionals as well as art and nature lovers of all ages.
A new art exhibit, "Minnesota Masters," opened Sept. 1 and will run until Dec. 31 in the Reedy Gallery at the arboretum's Oswald Visitor Center. The gallery typically features fine-art collections, but there are other settings to enjoy art at the arboretum, including a three-acre sculpture garden with about two dozen works by artists from around the world.
The current exhibit at the Reedy is different from previous art shows because it focuses on fewer — just four — painters, according to curator Keith Wilcock of Wilcock Gallery in Excelsior.
"Usually we go with 20 or 30 artists with a couple pieces from each. This time, each artist has eight to 10," Wilcock said. "They're all really seasoned professionals, and I let them choose what pieces they wanted to put in."
Each painter is known nationally as well as locally, and all have previously exhibited their works at the arboretum.
The artists are Kairong Liu, known for his sense of color in oil and acrylic paintings; Bruce Miller, a landscape and wildlife painter and past winner of the National Duck Stamp competition; Catherine Hearding, a watercolorist who teaches at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, and Richard Kochenash, an impressionist and instructor at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, the Edina Art Center, the Minnesota River School of Art and Atelier and his Chaska studio.
Arboretum visitors will be able to meet the artists and see how they work. Liu will be featured on Sept. 26, Kochenash on Oct. 24, Hearding on Nov. 27 and Miller on Dec. 12. All sessions will run from 1 to 3 p.m.
"We're hoping to attract people who already are out there wandering around, but we're also hoping for [art] students," Wilcock said. "It's a good way for them to check out these artists, all of whom teach."
