Ada Offerdahl grew up in Northwest Iowa where her parents fostered her love of art by providing lessons at an early age. Her training continued at Cornell College, the School of the Chicago Art Institute and Traphagan School of Fashion Design.
She has furthered her knowledge and technique wit private lessons and workshops studying with Shirley Markham, Mayberry Brown, and Charles Kapsner in charlotte; Andy Braitman at Wildeacres, NC; Elsie Dinsmore Poplin in Winston-Salem, NC; and Connie Winters’s workshops in Matthews, NC and in the Dordogne region of rural France.
Through the years, she has worked as a fashion illustrator and painter of portraites and landscapes. Her paintings hang in churches and private homes in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Japan, and she is represented by several galleries in North Carolina. Ada has earned many awards in juried and judged regional shows, including “Best of Show” honors.
The artist’s landscapes echo her life, depicting places that have special meaning for her. Painting for her, is a necessary extension of herself. She has never been far from paper, pencils, crayons, watercolors, pastels and oils. She held crayons in her fingers as a baby and plans to continue painting as long as she can hold a brush.