CARLA WETTSTEIN

Carla Wettstein-Utiger is the progeny of an artistic Swiss family and grew up in Zurich, Switzerland. Her father was a well known artist, and her mother an accomplished pianist. 

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Carla began copying the Old Masters, a technique she had learnt from her father, and then later expanded into still life and landscape. At the age of four her mother taught her to play the piano. She is still devoted to music and playing concert pieces. In 1970 Carla and her husband immigrated to Sydney, Australia. Her first exhibit was in 1971, two paintings that hung at the Waratah Mirror Festival. During this time she expanded into fantasy paintings which she continues to this day.

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In 1986 Carla and her family returned to Switzerland. After her father's death in 1990, she began to paint in earnest and began to believe she could exhibit her work in galleries as her father had done before her. She produced more fantasy and landscape paintings before opening her own gallery in Zurich where she exhibited twice in 1998 and 1999. 

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In 2002 Carla continued her education in Sydney and two years later was awarded a Diploma of Fine Arts from TAFE Northern Beaches. These studies expanded her horizons into the more modern styles of painting from further learning about a variety of painters and art history. 

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In 2006 Carla became fascinated by the beauty inherent in the internal organs of the human body and began painting her artistic interpretation of them for a solo exhibition. The organ are incorporated into intensely colourful views of the natural world and are identifiable more through the painting's title than through their representation. As Carla says, "It is fantastic how our body looks inside and how we can find similarities in nature."

 

"Carla's vision of the subject is unique and oddly beautiful." (F.W.) Carla has now adopted a surrealistic style, which has allowed her to portray her ideas to their fullest.