California Artist to Exhibit at Princeton Seminary’s Erdman Art Gallery

Princeton, NJ, August 24, 2006–Heather Sturt Haaga, a California artist with close Princeton connections, will open an exhibition titled “From Where I Sit: The Spaces in Our Lives” at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Erdman Art Gallery on Monday, September 11, with a reception from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the gallery. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. The show will continue through Friday, October 20.

Haaga, who is a member of Princeton Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees, brings a vivid palette to her work in both landscape and still life. Her subject matter ranges from chairs seemingly awaiting the return of their occupants to roses from her California garden. An inveterate traveler, she also paints subjects she has observed in foreign places. 

As a child and young woman, Haaga loved to make art, but she only began to paint seriously (with oils, her preferred medium) when she was 43. Deciding the time had come to fulfill her long-time desire to paint, she began to work in a studio with other artists. Later, she took several workshops and studied under Ron Chesley, a well-known plein air painter, now based in Utah, who became her chief teacher and mentor. 

“When we enter a space,” Haaga says, “we can participate as an onlooker, as an integrated part of the space, or as an agent of change in the space. There is positive space—filled with the subject—and negative space—the area that is unfilled but, when observed carefully, has its own powerful shapes. The joy as well as the job of an artist is to catch fleeting moments in spaces that constantly change—and to capture space that leads the viewers into their own spaces, their own stories.” 

“Sometimes you think, ‘How did I do that?’” Haaga says. “The act of drawing and painting can be so totally enveloping that you don’t think or analyze every step of the way.  Being able to paint is a gift from God and one I never fail to appreciate.”

Although Haaga and her husband, Paul, live most of the year in California, they spend much of each summer on the Atlantic coast in Delaware and also visit Princeton often.

Paul is president of the Class of 1970 at Princeton University, and their two children, Paul Jr. and Blythe, are both recent graduates of Princeton. A Vassar Collage graduate, Haaga divides her time among volunteer and board work, family life, travel, and of course, painting.

The Erdman Art Gallery is located in Erdman Hall, 20 Library Place, at the Center of Continuing Education at Princeton Theological Seminary. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 2:30 to 9:00 p.m. For more information, contact Mary Grace Royal at 609.497.7995 or coned@ptsem.edu.