Grant-Funded Local Artist Depicts Historic St. Cloud in Watercolors [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD - A local artist is breathing new life into downtown St. Cloud architecture.

St. Cloud native Dan Mondloch, in partnership with the St. Cloud Downtown council, has been awarded a $3,925 Central MN Arts Board and Cultural Heritage grant to depict eight iconic buildings- the Paramount Theatre, the current Brothers Bar building, the Stearns County Courthouse, the building housing MCs, the Herbergers block, Pioneer Place on Fifth Theatre, St. Mary's Cathedral and the former Davidson Opera house - all in watercolors.

Mondloch comes from a long line of artists and says he's always had a strong interest in architecture. He's spent the past three weeks creating the intial versions of the paintings, which will be showcased at a number of upcoming arts exhibitions.

Mondloch says the paintings fuse both historic and modern qualities of each building as a way of helping patrons connect the iconic buildings with their original settings.

The goal, Mondloch says, is to gather feedback by having exhibit goers rank their favorite paintings. He'd like to eventually turn them into larger, permanent installations on the outside of each building.

You can see Mondloch's work on Saturday at Atonement Lutheran Church in St. Cloud during the Central Minnesota Watercolors Show and Sale from 10:00  a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Also, we got a chance to get a sneak peak of the paintings at Mondloch's St. Cloud studio - check out the video below.