Welcome
Charlotte Laxen is an accomplished watercolor artist and teacher with over 40 years of experience. She is well known and admired for painting the beauty of France which has a special place in her heart and all of her work still stems from this original inspiration.
Some of her other favorite subject matter is Minnesota scenes, gardens, and insightful expressions of her faith. She believes each painting has a story to tell! Charlotte paints in her home studio in Minnesota near her friends and family.
Becoming a watercolor artist
I chose watercolor(or maybe it chose me!) in a garden in St. Cloud over 50 years ago. It was love at first sight! My instructor, Gerald Korte, was an accomplished painter who brought the medium to life in his demo in a way that made me marvel. White was created by "not" painting it. A passion was ignited that continues in my romantic heart to this day.
Watercolor gives birth to the spontaneous. It paints words of life. It whispers in gentleness and shouts with joy! It embraces tradition and welcomes the contemporary. It speaks with healing in a language all of its own. I never tire of learning its secrets and reveling in its beauty.
seeing clearly
"I used to think that I had to put everything in my paintings until I realized that each had a story to tell and that was the priority.
My work endeavors to tell that story, often a parable, by including the true essence of the elements needed without over doing the detail.
It's like de-cluttering my house, which always brings a sense of peace!" - Charlotte Laxen
a CARING TEACHER
When I graduated from high school, the only thing I knew I didn't want to be was a teacher! However, through people and circumstances, God led my life down that path and I am forever grateful.
Today, I am blessed to encourage and teach my love of watercolor painting to many adults who are at different stages in their artistic growth. In my workshop settings and private lessons, I stress foundational skills and the knowledge of how watercolor behaves. I share insights from my own journey... failures as well as successes in examples and demos in a fun and safe atmosphere. Students of all levels feel welcome!
"I felt affirmed, nurtured gently and not smothered, respected, challenged, stimulated to think and to feel, enthusiastic" -Student
Interested in seeing a painting in person or making a purchase? Give Charlotte a call at 952-683-1099 or e-mail her through this website contact page
"Laxen also finds inspiration at the Arboretum, whose grasses and trees she renders as abstract gestures springing from fields of white. In Winter Jewelry, she effectively enlarges a branch of frozen berries whose moist skins soften in anticipation of spring. With their non-naturalistic colors, her blue trees, yellow ground and red branches nicely inject contemporary design into this fine display of mostly traditional art." -Mary Abbe, StarTribune
