Edgars Vinters

Edgars Vinters (22 September 1919 – 29 April 2014) was a Latvian painter, specializing in landscapes and still life. His paintings, known for their rich and diverse use of color, have been described as "a source of inspiration for at least one generation" of Latvian artists.

Life Born in Riga, Edgars Vinters was the only child of the facade and decoration painter Hermanis Vinters (1874–1939) and his wife Anna, née Kalniņa, (1879–1953). As a ten-year-old boy he met with the pastelist Voldemārs Irbe, who instructed Vinters in pastel painting and helped to foster his appreciation for nature. From 1935 on, he wrote small articles for children's and youth magazines, which he illustrated with pen and ink drawings and linocuts. With the money he made from these pieces, he contributed to the school fee for the commercial college he attended until 1940, after a change of school. Resulting from contact he made with the painter Hugo Kārlis Grotuss, from 1937 Vinters changed his painting style. Grotuss encouraged him to give up 'the dark phase' he had developed through Irbe, to use brighter primers and to show more briskness and color in his paintings. During this time, he was also called upon to paint a series of porcelain plates for president Kārlis Ulmanis. Vinters was given a solo exhibition in England in 1992, the first of many in that country; he also began to show his paintings in the United States and Germany during the 1990s and 2000s. Vinters continued to exhibit his paintings until his death in 2014.

Style Vinters was a realist painter who also took inspiration from the impressionist movement.

During a state visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gül on 21 April 2013 in Latvia, the Latvian President Andris Bērziņš presented to the Turkish presidential couple as a gift a painting of Edgars Vinters. Some of Vinters' paintings were also included in the personal collection of Princess Diana.

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