About the Artist

Ulrike Opitz is a European-American artist, who paints the world around us, as she is inspired by it.

Born and raised in Austria she grew up hiking and skiing in the Alps. As her parents did not think people could make a living as artists, she holds a Master of Philosophy in English and German languages and Education. From childhood on she loved to draw - her favorite subjects being donkeys pulling carts, even though she was a city kid and had never seen a real donkey pulling a cart before. In 9th grade, Opitz discovered her love for painting with the help of a great art class teacher and started to illustrate stories. During her university years she met her future husband in a singing fraternity. After graduating from University, they got married and moved to Germany, where she furthered her artistic skills with watercolor classes while teaching. The couple welcomed three kids into this world, and soon the kids loved to join her and draw or paint, being allowed to use mom’s colors.

Traveling has always been a favorite activity for the whole family. Even when their three children were little, they took them along wherever they went - on vacation in Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, France, Monaco, and of course a lot of travel within Germany. In these places you encounter art along every step and unwind from all that beauty on the beaches, yet another kind of beauty. Occasionally the kids would get tired of mom’s “look at this” and the inevitable explanations. Thus time was equally spent wandering through churches as it was swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Opitz has always worked with landscapes as her main subject. Loving the calm power they portray. Her early paintings show the more quiet beauty of northern landscapes contrasted by the sheer mountains of the Alps or Mediterranean motives of southern areas.

In 1997, the Opitz family moved to the US, transferred by the company Mr. Opitz worked for. Moving did not keep Opitz from developing her art, it always stayed with her. In a way all the different places even furthered her artistic exploration. Since then they have lived in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, and now in Wyoming. In each place there were great artists to take classes and workshops from, interesting and talented people that helped her grow as an artist. She also started exploring other media. Beside drawing classes there were also soft pastel classes in Sioux City, IA. Her youngest daughter, by then in high school, had found soft pastels in an art store and wanted to try them. As she needed someone to drive her, Opitz took advantage of the situation and took the classes together with her daughter. The Sioux Land Artists invited Opitz to join them, and encouraged her to come with them to outdoor shows. There she started selling her work. Hearing that people usually say “What! In Sioux City?” But it is simply another place with great artists and people who love art. Acrylics and oils closed the circle of experimenting with media, and these now form her main techniques, with landscapes still being the subject of choice. She still enjoys taking classes from other artists and broadening her painting skills, while having developed an expression of her own. 

Opitz’s art captures the variety of landscapes she has traveled. From fields in Iowa to the breath taking views of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Zion, and, and…. She relishes the different faces of the landscapes and man-made wonders, experienced in detail as she sketches while traveling. With all her paintings Opitz celebrates the beauty she observes in life, and the grandeur of famous landmarks experienced personally - a never-ending inspiration. 

Her work has been shown in juried art shows at the Sioux City Art Center, at the Art Center in Lake Zurich, Illinois, at the College of Lake County, Chicago, and at the Cody Country Art League.