Arnor G. Bieltvedt grew up in Iceland. After graduating from high school he moved to Germany. He lived in Munich and Augsburg for three years and received his "Vordiploma" in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Augsburg. Arnor was eager to experience new cultures and moved to the United States to continue his studies. He studied at the Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where he received a B.S. degree in Marketing and a M.S. degree in Managerial Technology. At that point Arnor decided to devote his life to art. His love for art had started surfacing with greather strength than ever before. Arnor saw it his calling to become an artist. He started with great joy and enthusiasm his studies over again, gaining a B.F.A. degree in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and a M.F.A. in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. After the completion of his studies, Arnor served as Art Department Head at Logos School, a school for at risk students, in St. Louis for seven years, and in the summer of 2001 accepted the position of Art Department Head, Art Instructor and Gallery Director at North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, IL.
In the last decade Arnor's work has been shown extensively in the USA and Europe and he has enjoyed representation by many reputable galleries around the world (for example the 180 year old Gallery Commeter in Hamburg, Germany, which has exhibited the work of several of the most famous painters in the history of modern art). His paintings reside in private and public collections in Europe, the United States, and Asia, such as the collections of the Ambassors of Iceland in Japan, Austria and Findland, the tennis star Jimmy Arias in Florida, the Hollywood actress Jessica Harper and Starbucks' CEO Orin Smith. Arnor's paintings have been described as "filled with emotional energy" and expressive of "a powerful balance between the nonobjective and the real". The French painter, Eric Marette, says of Arnor's use of color, that "his colors are the light coming from his heart". |
