New Miller Exhibit Shows Bold Beauty of Judi Ekholm

“Softly in the Afternoon” by Judi Ekholm.

On Feb. 29, the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay will open Wade in Water, Into the Field: Paintings by Judi Ekholm, a collection of more than 35 paintings that surveys the work of Door County painter Judi Ekholm from the early 1990s to the present. A free opening reception that’s open to the public is scheduled for Feb. 29, 3-4:30 pm. Remarks will take place at 3:30 pm, and light refreshments will be served. This inaugural solo museum exhibition will be on display through April 6.

Ekholm is a Fish Creek-based painter who’s celebrated for her poetic, bold interpretations of the flora and fauna of the natural landscape. Color and pattern are signature elements of her contemporary, impressionistic works, which are focused on the adoration of ponds, fields of flowers, waterways and vistas. Wade in Water highlights a range of new paintings alongside works on loan that, in total, presents the growth and stylistic changes of the artist during a 30-year period. 

 “The abundant, rich and romantic nature of the scenes Judi chooses to portray lend a poetic quality to her work,” said Helen del Guidice, Miller Art Museum curator. “Inspired by this visual language, the paintings will be accompanied by select passages from poems by Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Keats and others.”

Exhibit visitors will experience this striking and poignant marriage of the visual and literary arts.

Ekholm, also an avid gardener, grew up near Louisville, Kentucky, and earned her master’s of arts in teaching (M.A.T.) degree from Indiana University. She maintains dual working studios in her Door County and Miromar Lakes, Florida, homes. 

“I find inspiration in the land, the sky and the water of our wonderful world,” Ekholm said. “My paintings are about the happiness I find in color, pattern and the moods of the land. These are the elements I can run through my head, my heart and my soul, and then use for my own personal painting language.”

Ekholm is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek, where her work is exhibited regularly. Her paintings reside in more than 1,400 private collections worldwide.

For more information, call 920.746.0707 or visit millerartmuseum.org.