Paint Your Own Dala Horse with Tara Austin (In-Person)

In this class, you will paint your own acrylic Dala horse. Instructor Tara Austin started rosemaling these acrylic Dala horses in 2019. They are fabricated at Northern Acrylic in Duluth, Minnesota. While learning about the history and styles of rosemaling, you will decorate one side of the horse in oil paint using a provided pattern. Vesterheim offers a 60% discount for in-person class tuition on a space-available standby basis to any resident living within 50 miles of Vesterheim. Students will be notified about the availability of an opening in the class 21 days before the starting date of the class period. Discounts do not include materials fees. If local area residents want a guaranteed place in a class, they must pay regular class tuition. In 2014, Tara took her first rosemaling class at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Since then she completed a yearlong Rosemaling Apprenticeship with Vesterheim Gold Medalist Andrea Herkert, focusing on Telemark and Gudbrandsdal styles. She received her MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 and now works as a practicing artist and instructor, teaching rosemaling throughout the Upper Midwest. In 2020, she received a Scandinavian Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions Grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation. Tara is the Folk Artist in Residence in spring 2026 at the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work is inspired by the boreal ecosystem of the Upper Midwest and draws from botanical and natural beauty. Originating in Norway, rosemaling has developed and changed over time and space, and Austin’s work—inspired by Norwegian and Norwegian American rosemaling styles, Swedish folk painting, scenic painting and faux finishing, and reverse painting on glass—has been exhibited in galleries throughout the region. She loves plants, painting, and her home on the North Shore of Lake Superior.