Buttons Wolst

Archelle "Buttons" Wolst

I was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Carnegie-Mellon (MFA and BFA), following which I taught art in Pittsburgh schools.

Moves to Michigan and Texas followed.  I started a family and raised two sons.

I moved to Racine, Wisconsin, spending the first few years combining family and volunteer work.  Subsequently, I was an editor for Little Golden Books. I moved to Door County in 1992, starting, owning and operating Snowstar Ltd stationery stores in Sturgeon Bay and Fish Creek until 2004.

Since then, I have been painting in oils, studying with master painters in Wisconsin and Arizona. Portraits are my favorite challenge. I have recently started to work in acrylics.

My work has been juried into the Hardy Gallery and the Miller Art Museum and I have been invited to create work for their special exhibitions. Since its beginning, I have been invited to the Door Prize for Portraiture.   Along the way I won Best of Show and Honorable Mention awards.

 My work is also in the permanent collections of Phillip Morris USA, the Miller Art Museum, the Sturgeon Bay Historical Society and private collections throughout the country.

I have been known as “Buttons” since “preemie” incubator days.  Family visits weren’t to see the new baby, but to see the “button-nose.” I soon became “Buttons.”

I sign my work with my given name, Archelle.

I live in the Door County woods with Henk, my Dutch husband and Winnie, our rescue dog.