Hometown Artist Edna Imm left a rich legacy of paintings and painters

This painting of sailboats on White Bear Lake was a gift from Edna to her friend Ruth Chapman.

No one has captured the visual charm of White Bear Lake better than painter Edna Imm. Imm died at age 103 in 2009. She resided in White Bear from the late 1940s until the early ’80s, where she raised her family and formed relationships within the community. She painted hundreds of family portraits and town landmarks, including churches, homes, and landscapes, ranging from sailboats to ice houses.

She was one of my grandmother Ruth Chapman's best friends. So I am blessed to have many family portraits she painted, as well as scrapbooks of many newspaper clippings featuring the area's beloved artist and photos of her with her many friends.

According to the April 7, 1969 Pioneer Press article titled “Imm-Group Members are Dedicated Lot”: For four to five hours on Mondays, about a dozen women artists gathered at her home 119 Lake Ave. (now 4675 Lake Ave.) with just a brief sandwich break for painting and critique. Edna said the group members were not amateurs, but “recognized professionals whose work is in demand for private sales and public shows.”

This painting by Edna Imm is of my Grandma Ruth Chapman at about age 40. It was likely painted in the '50s.

And this painting by Edna Imm was done of me when I was a toddler circa 1960.

Edna and her husband Wendell Imm lived in WBL since 1949. They bought the former Cary Langford home. They made one of their bedrooms into a studio.

Edna’s favorite ages to paint are age 5 and 10 – “the ages when children are at peace with the world.”

During their first year in White Bear Lake, Edna and her husband Wendell spoofed ice fishing on the lake near their home. They came from Chicago, where ice fishing probably wasn't a big thing.

WBCA exhibition of her work in 2015

The White Bear Center for the Arts sponsored an exhibition of her work during the summer of 2015, which included an extensive collection of her paintings gathered from over 25 lenders. This rare exhibition was the most comprehensive gathering of Imm’s vast body of work, representing many aspects of her 80-year career.  My Mom Barb Chapman Nelson and I were fortunate to contribute about a dozen of her paintings.

Her 2015 exhibit at White Bear Center for the Arts.

The exhibition was guest curated by artists Jim Dimmers and Laurel O’Gorman. Dimmers says, “Edna did not seek fame...everyday she sought artful expression.”  Laurel O’Gorman lived near Edna during the late 1940s-50s.  “As a very young child, growing up across the street from ‘Granny’ was a delightful adventure. She brought her very big personality and love of art into our world, and I am still riding the wave of that guiding light," remembers O’Gorman.

One of Edna's many proteges artist Jim Dimmers with a painting she would not sign because it was not her original idea.

The painting Edna did for the Children’s Hospital Association 1970 holiday card featured me and my siblings as models: Far left my brother Kurt Nelson, a red-headed version of my sister Nancy Michael, another model, my brother Erik Nelson, and me with a fictitious broken leg.

Here's a clipping from the lNov. 4, 1970 Sun Newspapers: WBL, Roseville, Shoreview and Arden Hills:

 Famous art quotes

Edna emphasized: "It’s the doing that counts – not the end result. When a painting doesn’t quite come off, you must remember it’s just a contribution to the great one that’s still to come. It’s the fringe benefits that matter.”

Self portrait by Edna. I would guess done in the early 1950s.

In her studio, the philosophies of three great artists have been tacked up in prominent places:

“The demand for totally realistic art is a debasement of art and of the individual.” Georges Braque

“Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“To define form completely, to describe all, to finish is to die.” Claude Monet

1. Edna's picture of the First Presbyterian Church of White Bear Lake, where my parents were married in 1955.

2. Her encaustic sunflowers were a singular technique in our collection of her paintings.

3. Our Grandfather Harvey (Chappie) Chapman bought the building where Washington Square restaurant is located and renovated it in the 1950s.

4. At the White Bear Center for the Arts, artist Jim Dimmers greets Edna's friend of many years Ginny Brierly, who lived on Lake Avenue for decades (circa 1960s-2000s).

5. Portrait of my sister Nancy Nelson Michael at age 6 (circa 1965).

6. Edna's home on Lake Avenue for sale (circa 1978).

7. Ice houses on White Bear Lake.

8. My Grandma Ruth Chapman flipping her wiglet. Note her little dog Tyler hanging off the back of the imaginary snowmobile.

9. A pastel of a nun - Edna's mother died when she was a child, and she lived at a Catholic school, although she was not Catholic, from about age 7 to adulthood.