Take Home Some of Minnesota’s Beautiful Artwork at Two Harbor Art Fair

TWO HARBORS, Minn. — Artists were busy setting up Friday afternoon to prepare for the 30th annual Two Harbors Art Fair, also known as Under the Spreading Walnut Tree Art Festival.

This year, 31 artists gathered outside Earthwood Inn Restaurant & Bar instead of P.K. Anderson House in Two Harbors. The new venue offers more space for artists and customers to soak in the artworks displayed.

The fair features a variety of artworks, mostly centered around nature and the Northland. Artists this year sold photography prints, mixed-media paintings, errands, leather-crafted hand-bags, homemade soaps, and more.

Wendy Smith has been a regular artist at the fair for the few years. She focuses on vibrant mixed-media paintings, often including water reflections as a motif of her work.

“People really love my vibrant colors. I don’t mute things down. I like to make them kind of larger than life in their color and people don’t see that a lot,” said Smith, a mixed-media artist from Barnum. “I feel that life can be a little sad, a little boring, so why not bring a little more fun to it.”

Artist from the Twin Cities area all the way up from Lutsen, MN, make the trek to Two Harbors for the welcoming arts community that comes out of Duluth. Dr. Paula Sundet Wolf hails from Lutsen, bringing with her impressionistic oil paintings, agate and wild grass-weaved baskets, and twig furniture. Wolf said that her artwork is inspired by Minnesota’s endless beauty.

“When I’m painting I like to still feel movement,” said Wolf, who also works as an instructor at North House Folk School. “I like to still feel like you can be there and relate to it. When I’m working with the baskets, it’s actually when I pick out some of the agates I think about what do I see and this one makes me think about the lake with the fog coming up off of it. So I always see something in each of my pieces.”

“I agree that there’s a lot of interest in art in our community in this area and I think there’s so many things to pull from. Because there is so much beautiful nature around us,” said Christine Williams, the event director. “So just pulling from what is in our area, you can create some amazing art.”

The Two Harbor Art Fair is continuing through this Sunday. Artists will be ready for business both Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.