Berkeley artist Wanda Westberg has established a reputation as one of the Bay Area’s fine contemporary oil painters. Growing up in the Midwest, with its unpredictable weather and changeable seasons, she developed a strong connection with nature. It was a different time, in a suburb of Minneapolis on an unpaved street surrounded with plenty of undeveloped land. Many happy hours were spent exploring the woods and marshes nearby, enjoying summers at the surrounding lakes, riding bikes, climbing trees and, in winter, skating on the frozen ponds and rivers, building snow forts, and sledding.
Attending UCLA and, discouraged from majoring in art, she obtained a degree in English, but continued to paint. She began studying oil painting with Arnold Schifrin, a flamboyant expressionist artist who chronicled Topanga Canyon, Mexico and California beaches and championed the status of Los Angeles artists. She has since worked with many fine artists in the Bay Area.
Painting on site and in the studio, her work covers a variety of subject matter that includes landscapes, still life objects, figures, animals, and urban scenes of San Francisco and the East Bay. Her recent one person show is a series of paintings, “Skies” consisting of 50 different views of San Francisco, the Bay, and Mt. Tamalpais from her living room and deck in Berkeley. New work, “Woods”, is inspired by her walks to Jewel Lake in Tilden Park.
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” – Henry David Thoreau