Crafting Beauty, Crafted by Truth.

Nick Barstad ~ Stone and Gemstone Art

Nicholas Karol Clark Barstad is a multidisciplinary artist and sole proprietor of Caldera Fine Art Limited in the Greater Denver area, Colorado. His working focus is in natural stone and mineral carving. His work is an exploration of form, material and process. His technical practice is driven by classical and contemporary norms and traditions, but also informed by innovative experimentation with new processes, tools, and techniques. Nick believes that much is possible with the tools of our age, and a dynamic and intuitive way of making is now possible even in very hard subtractive media. He often carves directly from a mental image with minimal sketching, allowing the piece to take shape and gather energy of its own organically, rather than the initial creative moment occurring through the manufacture of a maquette or quarter mold. This approach fuses the raw creative discovery into the final piece itself.

The subjects of these works are often determined by the needs of his clients, but are always rendered through the lens of the artist’s own vision. His self actuated work is often a dreamlike bending of reality and fusion of disparate elements. Diametric themes run through his work, such as life and death; love and fear, nature and the hand of man. However, regardless of the subject his work exudes a reverence for love, beauty, truth, poise, and dignity.

Nick’s works are in included in private collections in Colorado, Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey, Kansas, Arizona, Missouri, West Virginia, Alabama, Israel and Switzerland. His religious statues are on permanent display at various churches and institutions the Jacksonville area, Florida.