Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Artist Carl Von Fischer to Demonstrate Oil Painting at Kentucky Artisan Center

On Friday, June 29, Berea artist Carl Von Fischer will demonstrate oil painting from 10:30 – 3:30 at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

Carl Von Fischer grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio to parents who were both artists. Creative by example, Carl’s mother was a basketmaker and weaver and his father was a painter who designed for Gibson cards. Carl can remember taking a bus or streetcar to the Cincinnati Art Museum as a youngster. He states, “Almost every week, I would spend hours going from painting to painting. The ones that really caught my eye were the great western paintings. I knew early on – that one day I would paint – where and when I didn’t know.” Carl continued to draw and design things throughout high school. At age 16, Carl worked in Glacier National Park and his love of the western landscape became a reality.

After graduating from high school, Carl joined the military and was deployed to Germany. Upon his return to Cincinnati, he looked for and found a school that taught commercial art – The Central Art Academy of Commercial Art. With encouragement from his mother, he signed on and after two years graduated with top honors. Carl then went to work for several advertising agencies in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Denver, and Greenville, S.C. before opening his own advertising agency. After five years of running his own business, he sold it to his partner and moved out west to Missoula, Montana. Here he began to teach himself to paint in earnest, often painting in the open spaces of the west.

In 2003, Carl moved to Kentucky to be near his son and grandchildren. Here he began painting full-time. He states, “You name it – I had to paint it. They say it’s never too late and you are never too old. I agree to both. I let my paintings speak for themselves.” Carl likes to paint landscapes and animals and he uses a palette knife often to layer and apply the oil paint and delineate grasses, foreground, and trees in the background.

Carl Von Fischer’s paintings are regularly found at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, located just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Commerce Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.