REDLANDS, Calif.–Raymond Nordwall has been surrounded by traditional Native American dance, music and art his entire life and it has become a huge influence on his oil portraits and landscapes. Nordwall will be one of six artists featured during the annual “Evening with the Artists” hosted by the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation on Friday, April 19.

Nordwall is the son of a ceremonial pipe maker and great grandson of Roam Chief, a renowned, turn-of-the-century Pawnee religious leader. He grew up in Oklahoma where he became linked to the culture. He went to Pawnee ceremonies and began dancing in them when he was five.

“Besides my family, painting is the most important thing in the world to me,” says Nordwall. “I want to inspire people to learn more about the native culture and our love of nature and the Creator. I'm very proud of my Pawnee and Ojibwe heritage.”

While in junior high school, Nordwall and his friends participated in art shows in Texas and Oklahoma. At a young age he was selling his paintings at museum shows and determined that he could make a living as an artist.

Nordwall has been drawing and coloring for as long as he can remember. When Johnny Tiger, a family friend, gave him his first watercolor set, he began painting in the true Oklahoma style. While attending Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, his university professors openly disapproved of his traditional style and encouraged him to transfer to Bacone College in Muskogee where Indian styles were more readily accepted.

Nordwall has studied Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Monet museum paintings in the U.S. and Europe. He has learned about Japanese wood blocks and how they influenced French impressionists and postimpressionists. These painters influenced his favorite Native painters and all of them have influenced his subject matter, composition, brush strokes, and style.

“I feel very privileged to be included with the Evening with the Artists,” says Nordwall. “I look forward to meeting other lovers of art.”

The Redlands Community Hospital Foundation’s Art Program began in 1978, and today, the hospital exhibits in its hallways, offices and waiting rooms a collection of more than 750 works of original art.

Nordwall joins artists Dennis Hare, Tony Radcliffe, Penny Fedorchak, Darlene Katz, and Hanna Adler at the fifth annual “Evening of the Artists” fundraising event. Nordwall’s artwork will be available for purchase at the Stan and Ellen Weisser Education Pavilion on the Redlands Community Hospital campus from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 19. Proceeds will benefit the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation’s Art Fund. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served during the evening’s elegant event. Tickets are $20.

For more information on the “Evening with the Artists” event or to RSVP, please call (909) 335-5500. To see a sample of Nordwall’s artwork, please visit www.nordwallart.com.

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Redlands Community Hospital Foundation supports Redlands Community Hospital, which is an independent not-for-profit, stand-alone hospital.