To the average person, it’s just a bowl of fruit or an arrangement of flowers in a vase. To Vivian Thierfelder, it’s inspiration.

The world-renowned artist has been exhibiting her work for 37 years. Ms. Thierfelder received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta in 1970. After working in the graphics industry for a number of years, she decided to pursue art full-time in 1983. Since then, she has become one of few Alberta artists who are able to make a living in the often-unforgiving art industry.

She’s dabbled in various mediums, including oils, egg tempera and acrylics, but found her niche in transparent watercolour. The artist prefers using supersaturated colours to create rich hues, representative of her varying subjects.

Ms. Thierfelder has also tried her hand at different styles of painting in her career, but has found the greatest success in well-defined realism, creating lifelike portraits out of paint and canvas.

She’s painted all kinds of fruit and vegetables, but has found the greatest success in her floral work. Perhaps it’s because so many of her floral pieces are depictions of flowers from her acreage garden.

Ms. Thierfelder’s first exhibition was at the Multicultural Heritage Centre in Stony Plain. Since then, she has gained much acclaim locally, nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines, including Art Focus, American Artist and International Artist.

She’s also been the recipient of many awards in her career, including Best in Show at the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour’s Open Water International Juried Exhibition in 2001, as well as the YWCA Woman of Distinction in 1997.

Her work can be seen in collections around the world, including the Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council Art Bank and Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. Ms. Thierfelder was honoured to have one of her paintings selected for the Honourable Queen Elizabeth II’s Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. Her work is currently on display at the Royal Library in Windsor, UK.

Throughout her successful career, Ms. Thierfelder has been generous with her time and talent to local groups. She has donated works to the Alberta Summer Games and donated an original painting every year of the Multicultural Heritage Centre’s Annual Art Auction. “It is difficult to articulate how significant it is to an organization to have someone of her caliber support their cause,” states Judy Unterschultz, the director of the Multicultural Heritage Centre.

It is with great honour that the City of Spruce Grove inducts Ms. Thierfelder into the Awards of Excellence.