When our artist Sarah Winkler told us the origin story of her upcoming museum show, we knew we had to share. We love her gumption in suggesting her own show at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery and look forward to seeing the pieces she is working on for this exhibition. Please enjoy reading this excerpt from her most recent newsletter, which tells the tale.

 

Well… I am less than a month out from my Museum Show!

Exciting for two reasons.

1. I never do museum shows. 2. I might never do one again.

Like any good novel, this show began with a fateful December 2023 snowstorm over the Great Plains that closed I-70 and stranded myself, Jason [Winkler’s husband], two pugs and our van on the western edge of Kansas ending our cross-country bid to get home to Colorado that evening. We detoured off the highway into a tiny Swedish-American town called, Lindsborg. As the snow whipped around, we found wood shops selling hand painted Dala Horses, Licorice treats and Pepparkakor gingersnaps in a pioneer town that has kept its cuisine and festivals tied to the old country from which its pioneer settlers came.

At the edge of town, I happened upon the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery. A name that rang a bell. I had first encountered a Birger Sandzén painting at the Denver Art Museum’s western art collection galleries. It is titled, A Mountain Symphony (Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado) What struck me about the work was the scale of the composition, its bold palette and the muscular texture of the expressive brush strokes.  I saw in his painted language, depicting the landscapes of the West, the connection to European impressionist and Fauve painting styles. It didn’t surprise me that he was dubbed the “Van Gogh of the West.”

I was thrilled to take a look around his namesake museum and see many more paintings of his in the permanent collection. A painting on display of his, titled “Moonrise Over the Colorado River” inspired me to create a version of this scene in my own style. I instantly felt a kinship to his work’s extraordinary vision and his immigration journey from Sweden to the American West which I could relate to my own from Manchester, UK to Colorado.  I found myself proposing a show then and there to the Director and now three years later… well, it’s ‘showtime!’

Birger Sandzén visited and painted Colorado’s front range and dubbed the Rocky Mountain landscapes as ‘The Big Pretty.’” His interest in geology, light and shadow, contrast, vivid color and texture echos my own.  I decided to title my show at the museum that exact phrase and have focused many of my paintings on Colorado’s Front Range locations that he enjoyed visiting and painting and I now call home. Iconic stops such as Longs Peak, the Colorado River and Garden of the Gods will pay homage to the legacy and works of Birger Sandzén through my contemporary approach.

 

THE BIG PRETTY

Exhibition: May 3rd-July 19th, 2026

A solo show of new paintings by Sarah Winkler

depicting Colorado’s front range landscape icons.

Opening Reception on Sunday, May 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. with exhibition talks beginning at 2:30pm

Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am to 5pm • Sunday 1pm to 5pm

401 N. First Street, Lindsborg, Kansas 67456

All are welcome to attend the opening and please stop by during regular hours to view the exhibition from May 3 – July 19th, 2026.

 

About Birger Sandzén

The thick, rhythmic brushstrokes in this 1921 painting “Creek at Moonrise,” at left, helped establish Swedish artist Birger Sandzén as a unique voice in early 20th century America.

Birger Sandzén was born in Blidsberg, Sweden in 1871. He studied art in Stockholm with Anders Zorn and Richard Berg and for approximately three months in Paris with Edmond François Aman-Jean. In 1894, he came to Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, to teach languages and assist in the art department and vocal music department. He remained at Bethany for the remainder of his career, becoming the principal art instructor in 1899 and retiring in 1946. Throughout this period, and after he retired as Professor Emeritus, he was a prolific painter and printmaker until his death in 1954. During his lifetime he completed in excess of 2600 oil paintings and 500 watercolors. He created 207 lithographs, 94 block prints and 27 drypoints, which when the editions are totaled amount to over 33,000 prints. In addition he was a consummate draftsman, filling over 80 sketchbooks. (source: Birger Sandzén Memorial gallery)