by Frank Lee
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Randy Asseln’s artistry is as much about the canvas prints he creates as the emotions he evokes in those who view them.
The St. Stephen photographic artist is the featured artist at Great River Arts Center’s main gallery in downtown Little Falls. His specialty is printing digitally-enhanced photographs on canvas, the kind of canvas artists use to create their oil paintings.
“I’ve bought his paintings before, and he’s doing an awesome job,” said Rosie Huls, a Sartell resident who is a semi-retired optician at America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses.
Between 50 and 60 of Asseln’s canvas prints will be on display in his exhibit dubbed “Minnesota on Canvas” at the gallery at 122 First Street SE now until Dec. 20.
“We hear about him once in a while in the paper, and we just wanted to see what he’s been doing,” Huls said as she enjoyed snacks and beverages. She also wanted a chance to meet the artist.
The Great River Arts nonprofit agency has two satellite galleries, one at the Morrison County Government Center and another at St. Gabriel’s Hospital, besides its downtown venue.
“I think Randy is a very honest fellow and what he does is from his heart,” said Huls, who attended the two-hour artist reception Nov. 12 at the gallery across from the movie theater.
“His pieces just look so natural,” Huls said. “You can kind of tell a good artist when you see a piece, and it just talks to you, and some of these at the gallery really just talk to you.”
The 63-year-old Asseln is a husband and father of two who has been in the printing industry for more than three decades, which he credits with how he can create “a fantastic-looking image.”
“I’ve gotten so many compliments that it’s unbelievable,” Asseln said of the feedback he received from the more than 130 people who attended his artist reception in Little Falls.
“I’m kind of a high-tech artist, so they ask me a lot of questions as to how I do this, like how do I print on canvas, how do I digitally paint on canvas, and I try to explain to them as best I can,” he said.
Asseln uses various kinds of photo-imaging software, but he said he uses Adobe Photoshop the most to create his canvas prints. He said he has been printing on canvas for the past eight years.
“I try to do landscapes that people have seen before, that they know of – I love the North Shore, I love Split Rock Lighthouse, I love Gooseberry Falls,” he said. “I try to do things that people can relate to – barns, farm scenes, sunsets and sunrises – and people relate to that kind of stuff.”
This is not the first time Asseln’s canvas prints have been on display at the Great River Arts Center. His works were exhibited at the same venue, although in a different gallery, in 2014.
“I got into canvas printing because I couldn’t find anybody that could enlarge a picture, a photograph, to 2 feet by 3 feet that looked good, so I found ways to do that, and I found methods I put together – recipes – in order to enlarge photos,” he said above the noisy din of his reception.
Asseln said he experimented with different types of canvas before finding a few kinds of canvas he really liked for making canvas prints “that really make the images pop.”
The water-resistant canvas prints he creates with 200-year fade-resistant inks that do not require being housed in glass in addition to being lightweight, glare-free and easy to hang, he said.
“Plus canvas just looks good,” Asseln said. “And the exhibit is a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun. I was up here for three days hanging these prints, getting them where I wanted them.”
Asseln credits his family’s support for making the artist reception possible, including his wife and sister-in-law, for helping to create the refreshments that welcomed visitors to the gallery.
Great River Arts Executive Director Jill Moore said the center is becoming well-known.
“We have one of the largest exhibit spaces in the state of Minnesota, outside of the metro area,” she said, “so we get sought out quite often by artists.”
The gallery’s hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Saturday, and it’s closed the rest of the week.
“Artists apply and then they submit digital photos of pieces of work they have done,” Moore said of visual artists who want to exhibit at Great River Arts. “It goes through us, as a staff, and then through our visual-arts committee, and they vote who they would allow in and we find a time.”
Randy Asseln of St. Stephen talks about his canvas prints with guests at his artist reception on Nov. 12 at the Great River Arts center’s main gallery in downtown Little Falls.
Randy Asseln of St. Stephen talks to Great River Arts Executive Director Jill Moore at the entrance of the main gallery of the Great River Arts Center on First Street SE about his canvas prints exhibit “Minnesota on Canvas,” which will be on display until Dec. 20.
Between 50 to 60 canvas prints of familiar landscapes by Randy Asseln of St. Stephen are on display at the Great River Arts Center in downtown Little Falls until Dec. 20.
Randy Asseln of St. Stephen talks to Great River Arts Executive Director Jill Moore at the entrance of the main gallery of the Great River Arts Center on First Street SE about his canvas prints exhibit “Minnesota on Canvas,” which will be on display until Dec. 20.
