Rural setting influences artist's home and work
Structures, attitude blend with Door County landscape

Feb. 3, 2007
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Donna Marie Pocius

Craig Blietz doesn't mind when people drive by his Sister Bay home without even looking at it.

In fact, that was this painter's plan for his home, studio and two storage buildings on the Door Peninsula. He aimed to blend into the landscape, so he paid close attention to details of rural architecture as he conceived the design.

"I wanted to do something where maybe I'm not noticed so much. It kind of fits in and is part of the community and architectural heritage of the area. That has been the objective of all these four buildings here as well as the windmill," Blietz said.

Indeed, the home and separate studio resemble red barns with two outbuildings on 20 acres. The cedar siding is a board-and-bat style, and the home's roof has a hay door prow detail.

Staying true to the rural look on the outside was especially important to Blietz, who initially lived and worked in the 1,100-square-foot home, built in 1998. The studio, about the same size, came later in 2004.

Paunch guards the living area in Craig Blietz's home near Sister Bay. On his 20-acre property, Blietz has built barn-like structures that fit into the rural setting.

Man in the mirror Blietz contemplates some finer points of his work in the studio. To the left is a painting he did of renowned Peninsula Players actor-director Bob Thompson.

It was only last year that he replaced a wooden ladder leading to the bedroom in the loft with a stairway. He also updated the kitchen then and added a sliding glass door and window on the south wall - before the painter was only interested in emitting north light for its consistent quality.

Also, Kim Steger, Blietz's girlfriend, and Paunch, the cat, have moved in.

"So it is in transition. This is becoming more of a home," Blietz said.

Blietz's love for antiques and his own paintings give the home an understated elegance. He modestly calls his decorating style "rural agri-junk," but there's a lot of quality in the open space, warmed by pine walls and ceiling and a cement floor, left uncolored and accented with a large throw rug in the sitting area.

His striking oil paintings hang on three walls. Some are in his private collection. Blietz is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries, Fish Creek, as well as galleries in Michigan and Utah.

The subject matter - deer and hunter, a trapper and a cherry-picking bucket - are evidence of Blietz's country living and were not painted when he lived and maintained a studio in the Chicago area. That's for sure. But he also paints still life, nudes and portraits and is a sculptor as well.

Blietz holds himself to high standards, developed by master painters. "Go before the people who really did it the very best. Study the very best examples. I try to do that," said Blietz, who passes that advice to his students. He is artistic director and teacher at the Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art.

Donna Marie Pocius, a freelance writer, recently learned more about the artist, his home and painting.

Q. Why the move to the Door Peninsula?
A. In 1995, I was introduced to Jim Ingwersen (a portrait painter who lives in Sister Bay), and I was so taken by the kindness of the community. That was first and foremost what impressed me. Second, what resonated is that this - trying out a rural existence - was something I was thinking about in 1985. It faded from my radar a little bit.

From 1995 to 1996, I would come up here to visit quite often. I taught at the Peninsula Art School; I would stay in a hotel, drive around and landscape paint.

Q. What made you buy this property?
A. I saw this property and thought there is no justification for me buying 20 acres. I left. I came back and looked at it. The prices 10 years ago were one-third what they are now. But to me, it was a lot of money. I came here and decided to buy this (in 1996) and had a year's worth of buyer's remorse. As a single guy and being an artist, I am all about keeping lifestyle under means - a way to be able to do what I do. I really believe in that.

Q. So how did your philosophy affect the building of your home?
A. My neighbor across the way is accustomed to looking at an open field, and I have neighbors that way, and there are people driving by. I couldn't see doing something where people would look and say, "Oh, no!"

What I am trying to do here is be sensitive with this agri-architecture. That is what I tried to do with each one of the buildings - the studio, the coop, the shed and, of course, the home being the mother building of all of them.

Q. How did the design and building process go?
A. I designed this just by keeping my eyes open and looking at rural and agricultural architecture and paying attention to proportion and looking at details - not necessarily subscribing to an authentic Germanic style or a Norwegian style. But kind of picking and choosing styles and little features I liked and putting them together so that it looks like an agriculture building that has been here for 100 to 150 years.

I am really big on the idea of authentic material. It is real true board-and-bat siding - not a panel to look like that. The cedar shakes are cedar shakes.

I wanted to finish the outside. I tried to make it authentic and I didn't spend money on the inside; it was pretty rough on the inside in the beginning.

Q. You made major changes to the home's interior since 1998. Tell me about them.
A. It has experienced different stages of being completed. The living area, my bed and everything was up there (in the loft), and you had to go up on a ladder to get there. So that's changed.

This was all a studio (on the first level of the home). It has a north light window, and I didn't want any other window in here at that time (1998 to 2004), because I wanted to control my light.

The stairway is new (in 2006), and the kitchen is a kind of galley style. All I had was a cooktop, no oven. A guy doesn't do much baking.

Q. How do you describe your decorating style?
A. The philosophy is antique, and not antique in an expensive way. This is more like junk. I bought these sofas (distressed brown leather with nail heads) for like $600. I like this older stuff; that's what I tend to scavenge - old worn, humbled and battered stuff. It has a lot of story to it for me. It has a lot of narrative. You kind of wonder: What is going on with this? Where has this been?

Q. And where have you found items for your home?
A. I love going to garage sales and antique stores. Almost all the furniture is from garage sales.

The trunk came from a garage sale, and another trunk came from my girlfriend's sister. This is an old dentist work cabinet (near the entryway), and I use it as a desk. The blue door was on the side of the road; someone was throwing it out.

So I grab and collect stuff. You have to be careful, or you end up with a lot of stuff; you have to edit yourself sometimes.

Q. What is the focal point?
A. It is probably this wall - you look out and see the cornfield and beyond that the orchard. I like that.

Q. There are a lot of earth tones here; what is the role of color?
A. Being a painter and being a visual person probably influences my choice of things - certainly in color and how I acquired different things in the home.

People have said my paintings are pretty neutral and subdued in color. And I enjoy the grays and the browns and the neutrals, and I like black - absolutely. It's a handsome color.

Q. How are your own paintings used in your home?
A. They are in here now because I don't know where else to put them. The ones on this wall (points to the stairway) are much older, and I am choosing to keep them for different reasons.

Q. I see the rural inspiration in your painting.
A. We are absolutely, I believe, a product of our environment. Would I have made these paintings when I was living in Chicago? Probably not. Why would someone living in the city make paintings about deer hunting? But when you live up here for 10 years and know people who do it, boy you know once it starts.

I find my paintings are about the balance of nature and the human infiltration of nature.

Q. Any other changes in your art as a result of moving to the Door Peninsula?
A. The other thing is that this is the largest and nicest studio I have had of all the prior studios. So my work has gotten bigger. It sort of happened. My environment is bigger, ceilings are taller.

You can make your work anywhere, but it is sure nice to have a studio like that. It is nice, very nice.

Q. What's it like living the artist's life here, as compared with Chicago?
A. It is a whole lot easier to work here for me. You are not fighting the fight. You are not looking for a parking spot; you are not trudging through weather to get from here to there. You are not dealing with traffic.

There are days when I don't leave the property. That's pretty amazing. This is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for my life. It really is