After a long winter, the sudden explosion of plant life makes May on the North Shore feel like stepping into a new world. Plants are integral to our well-being and happiness. They’re a source of food and medicine, for one. But they also offer wells of peace, creative inspiration, and beauty. One local artist who knows the power of plants is Tara Austin, a rosemaler and painter whose work blends the traditions with inspiration from her home of Lake Superior’s North Shore.
Although Austin was always a creative at heart, her journey into rosemaling didn’t begin until she was pursuing her MFA in painting and drawing. During one of her first critiques in grad school, her professor said that her painting style was reminiscent of rosemaling. Intrigued, she signed up for a rosemaling class at North House Folk School in her hometown of Grand Marais. She fell in love with rosemaling—its nuances, process, and roots in nature—and has been practicing the folk art ever since.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term, rosemaling is a style of painting that arose in Norway in the 1700s. During this time, guild-trained artists traveled throughout Norway, adorning the interiors of churches and homes with their work. As the years went on, distinct rosemaling styles began to arise in Norway’s different regions, like dialects of a language. But whether it’s the tulips of Valdres style or the fantastical flowers of Telemark style, all styles of rosemaling share a common inspiration—plants. For Austin, who grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of the North Shore, it was this pairing of painting and plants that led her to falling in love with the art form.
“I feel at home in the woods, and I think my attraction to rosemaling stems back to growing up in the woods up the Gunflint Trail,” Austin said. “I’ve always loved plants—plants and floral elements have always been a part of my work, so rosemaling was a natural path from there.”
Although rosemaling is rooted in traditions, each artist approaches the craft with their own sense of style. Austin’s work is grounded in the Gudbrandsdal style of rosemaling, which is characterized by the acanthus leaf. All styles of rosemaling have swirling patterns called “scrolls” as their basic building blocks.
“The patterns in nature are something people instinctively find peace in,” Austin said. “There’s a mesmerizing complexity in them, and rosemaling has similar patterns—you start with a core, like the root of a plant, and the scrolls are growing out from there.”
One of the things that makes rosemaling distinctive is that, unlike some other forms of art, it wasn’t primarily done on paper or canvas; instead, it began as a way to decorate the home. Walls, doors, trunks, and other household objects were the surfaces of choice, and such is the case for Austin’s work today. Much of her work has involved custom projects for clients—everything from rosemaled cupboards to front doors to a paneled screen for Prospect Refuge Studio. Austin sees this as a way to invite the calming beauty of the natural world into our personal spaces and lives.
“Here in Minnesota, like in Scandinavia, we spend so much time inside during the winter. The spaces we live in are our sanctuaries, and our cold climate forces us to pay attention to our interiors,” she said. “The rosemaling I’ve done on interiors is permanent, and I like that—I think people shouldn’t be afraid to embrace their own style, and should feel empowered to do what they want in their own space.”
In addition to her custom interior work, Austin also paints rosemaled Dala horses, and teaches rosemaling classes at places like the North House Folk School, including a class on rosemaling 10 different plants of the boreal forest. No matter the project, Austin said that her passions for painting and plants continue to inspire each other: her art leads her to closer observation of and appreciation for the flowers around her, and her time in the woods finds its way into her art. It’s this melding of the natural and artistic worlds that drives her creative spark.
“When I make my work, I don’t go into it with an agenda or a story to tell. My hope is that people who view my work find a peaceful moment, like they do when outside in nature or looking at a flower,” Austin said. “Those moments are important.”
Tara Austin’s work can be found on her website at: taraaustinstudio.com.
