Some Good Press

It’s always exciting to see your name in print. This one’s by far the nicest blurb I’ve ever had in a newspaper. And I didn’t even have to write it! Thanks to the Ventura County Star.

(from the Ventura County Star’s arts supplement “timeOut” for July 10-17, 2009)

It’s a nice distillation of information about me and my art, quoted off my website. (You can read it if you click on the picture above and then zoom in.) It gives the information for the exhibit I’m in at the Red Brick Gallery (in Ventura, which explains the Ventura newspaper’s interest).

Apparently the gallery sent the newspaper several images from all the artists in the exhibit, and the paper chose to print one of mine. And write up a story with it. They didn’t have to pick me, but they did, and did a very nice job of it too. I’m chuffed!

The story references my exhibit at the Red Brick Gallery in Ventura, California. The show went up this Monday and will stay up through August 16, 2009. If you’re in town on Saturday, July 25, be sure to stop by the gallery between 6pm and 9pm for the artists’ reception. I will be there! And so will that painting in the newspaper article (the painting looks much better in person than in newsprint!).

Thanks to the Ventura County Star for the lovely writeup. You guys rock.

New Painting: “Satwiwa”

If you read my “Work in Progress” posts (here, here, here, and here) you’ll recognize this painting.

"Satwiwa" by Barbara J Carter, 40x30", acrylic on canvas, 2009.

Satwiwa is the Chumash (Native American) word for “the bluffs”, and was the name of one of their villages. Satwiwa is now the name of an educational center located within the Rancho Sierra Vista park in the Santa Monica Mountains (near Los Angeles).

I took a lot of photos during my recent dayhike in Rancho Sierra Vista, and I think many of them may end up being used for paintings. At least two have so far (I’ll post the other one soon). I got some really good reference material there. And that was just one visit! That’s really good news, because many of my dayhikes end up with no useable material at all. So I guess it all balances out.

This painting is available for $1150. It is wired and ready to hang. It is not framed, but the canvas is stapled neatly on the back and the deep sides are painted solid red, so it can be displayed without a frame. I offer free delivery to most of the Los Angeles area, and shipping via FedEx Ground to anywhere else in the world. Please contact me for more information.

You can see my other paintings like this here.

Abstract Dots in Detail

Here’s a closer look at my second experimental dot painting. This is one corner of the painting:

Detail of dot painting by Barbara J Carter, 2008

The white dots are about the size of a pencil eraser.

What I like about this painting is the partial obscuration of the underlying colors by the mostly light-colored little round dots of paint (the ones that look white and straw-yellow in the image above – none are really pure white, but that is how they look). When you stand back and look at the painting you can certainly make out the major areas of underlying color (the two red rectangles) but there’s more than that going on. I like how hard it is to make this out, as if it’s more hinted at than spelled out.

The other thing I like about the painting is the darker purple dots around the edges. I intentionally “feathered” them into and amongst the pale dots to make what we artists call a gradient around the perimeter of the painting. This really gives it a sense of depth and additional mystery. The detail image above shows one of the corners. You can see the darker dots that form the edges of the painting on the left and bottom of the detail image.

If you enjoyed this painting, don’t worry, there will be more. Just not quite yet. Right now I need to paint some more of my neo-pointillist landscapes. I’ll post some progress images in the coming days.

Abstract Exploration

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m starting to explore painting in a more abstract style. This painting is my second attempt at abstract pointillism, and I think it worked out pretty well. I showed it to a group of artists and it garnered quite a bit of very positive feedback, so that’s pretty encouraging. This is certainly a direction I intend to explore more.

Barbara J Carter, 2008, Acrylic on Canvas, 24×18″

It isn’t titled, but if you absolutely must own it, it is available for purchase. Unframed it’s $575, framed it’s $660. The sides are white and no staples show (they’re all on the back) so it may be displayed without a frame for a contemporary look. It is signed on the back. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested.

Experimenting with Abstraction

As I mentioned in my last email newsletter (sign up for my newsletter here!) I’ve been experimenting with abstract painting. I’ve got all sorts of ideas I want to try. Some of my experiments haven’t come out quite the way I wanted, so they’ll remain hidden from view. But I’m willing to share the ones I like.

Here’s one I’m pretty happy with. I don’t know if I’ll do more like this, but it was a fun exercise.

This painting is 16×20″, acrylic on canvas. It doesn’t have a name yet – got any suggestions? Unlike my usual paintings, I did not paint the edges of the canvas, so they’re just plain white (3/4″ deep). With the staples on the back, it can be hung either as-is (for a sleek contemporary look) or framed (for a slightly more traditional look). If you want it, it’s available for $460 unframed or $530 in a frame. You can read more about how to purchase my work here.

Inspiration: Andrew Forge

I have a new artist to add to the list of those who inspire me. Well, he’s new to me anyway.

Andrew Forge (1923-2002) was born in Kent, UK, studied painting in Britain and became an academic there, eventually coming to the US and finishing out his career at various educational institutions in New England. Up until a couple weeks ago I’d never heard of him. But luckily I stumbled across a notice for an exhibit of his work in a Los Angeles gallery, went, and was completely bowled over.

He painted in several different styles through the years, but the paintings that really grabbed me were his abstract pointillist pieces. Here’s one from the gallery’s web site:

Andrew Forge, untitled, 30x44"

I absolutely fell in love with his version of pointillism. The pointillist paintings mainly fall into two groups: monochromatic (a color field, like the one pictured above) and complementary. The latter tend to be larger pieces (50×80″) which, from a distance, appear fairly neutral in coloring but more complex in structure. Vague shapes like diagonal lines and faint curves can be seen when viewing the paintings from a distance. Then, up close, the individual dots reveal themselves to be brightly colored and mostly grouped in complementary colors, like red dots with green dots, or blue with orange. His dots are larger than Seurat’s tiny dots, about half the size of mine. He also added a few little short lines here and there mixed in with the dots. The dashes lie on top of the dots, and are thinner than the dots, so they completely disappear in the overall dazzle when you step back.

I found the difference between what you see from a distance and what you see up close so fascinating that I kept stepping back and forth to see it. Honestly, I was wandering around in a positive daze, goofy smile plastered on my face. It was the opening reception, so it probably looked like I’d drunk too much of the wine. But in fact I was drunk on the high of experiencing some really amazing art. All I’d imbibed was water.

In the past few weeks I had been contemplating painting some abstract pointillist pieces, and then this show comes along at just the right moment. It electrified me. It’s a confirmation that my ideas are sound, and at the same time it pointed me toward some new avenues that I hadn’t thought about before. I need to go back and study these paintings some more before they go away. Reproductions, especially web images, don’t do them justice.

The Andrew Forge exhibit is up October 23 through December 20, 2008, at the Manny Silverman Gallery in Los Angeles. If you’re in the area (and if you enjoy pointillism like my work, or at least don’t hate it!) I highly recommend seeing this exhibit. Andrew Forge was mainly an East Coast artist, so I don’t expect we’ll get to see much more of his work out here.

“Coastline” painting

"Coastline" by Barbara J Carter, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 24x36"

The central coast of California is like no other place on earth. If you ever have the chance to drive Highway 1 where it hugs the coast, between San Luis Obispo and Monterey, take it! It is by no means the most efficient means to get from point A to point B, but it is insanely beautiful and well worth the little extra time it takes. In particular, up near Big Sur it gets quite twisty and winding. The coast is all hills and cliffs there. That’s where I snapped the photo that became the reference for this painting. I kept having to pull over and jump out to take pictures. This is quite challenging, as pullouts are often quite small and come up suddenly without warning. But it was worth it!

Inspiration: Georges Seurat

I’ve been meaning to write about the artists who inspire me. Given my Pointillism-derived style, it’s only fitting that I begin with Georges Seurat, the inventor of Pointillism.

First, let me be clear. I did not set out to follow in Seurat’s footsteps. I had no idea I’d end up painting with anything like a Pointillist style. There were other artists, not Pointillists, whose styles I tried to emulate (without much success, may I add). I’ll post more about them later.

That said, it is true that I’d always been intrigued by Seurat’s ideas. To be honest, I don’t love his finished paintings, but I found his ideas about “optical mixing” fascinating.

In my high school art class (I think it was my junior year) we were assigned a Pointillism project. I had more fun with this one project than just about anything else in my four years of high school art classes. We were all using oil pastel sticks, and for a couple of weeks the tap-tap-tap sound of everyone busily making dots filled the room. Sometimes we’d all get synchronized, and the thunderous sound of our coordinated TAP-TAP-TAP must have rung up and down the hall.

Many years later, I took up the paintbrush and began experimenting. As I mentioned, I actually tried to emulate some other artists. I learned many valuable lessons from the experimentation, but the results weren’t particularly pleasing. And then, while messing around, I started painting with dots of paint rather than blended brushstrokes.

This was my “aha” moment. As soon as I saw the dots, I knew that this was how I wanted to paint.

But enough about me, let’s get back to Seurat. Because anyone painting with dots owes a huge debt to Georges Seurat.

His most famous painting is the 10-foot-wide “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte- 1884″ (or, more correctly, “Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte – 1884″). This masterpiece of Pointillism took him 2 years to complete, and hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago. I was fortunate enough to get to see it a number of years ago, back when I lived in Chicago.

Georges Seurat - A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte - 1884

Georges Seurat - Bathers at Asnieres, 1883-1884

Frankly, I find Seurat’s paintings a bit stiff and pale. The technique is fascinating to look at close up, but I find the formal compositions dull. The surface, from a distance, looks soft and fuzzy. Soft and fuzzy isn’t really my cup of tea.

But the technique! Oh, my, it’s breathtaking. You get up close to one of his paintings and there are all of these little DOTS! They’re not necessarily little round circles, most of them are actually little oblong hatchmarks, slanting this way and that. Busy! And all the colors, layered over each other, is mind boggling. As you can see, I find his paintings much more fun up close than from a distance.

Georges Seurat - La Parade (detail)

There’s some similarity between this zoomed-in detail of one of Seurat’s paintings and my paintings, isn’t there? You could say that I ended up painting like a blown-up Seurat, with big dots. After all, this is the part of Seurat’s work that I find most fascinating.

Still, I don’t like the way the white shows through between his dots. I prefer to tone my canvases a solid color (red, almost always) before applying my dots. This is a big difference between my approach and Seurat’s. The white behind his dots tends to make the overall effect “pastel”. This was not the effect I wanted, as you’ll see when you read about a very different artist who influenced me: Paul Powis.

“Topanga Mist” mini painting

“Topanga Mist”, 2008, acrylic on paper, 5×5″ matted to 14×11″

While hiking in Topanga State Park last fall, I saw some amazing cloud formations. Fog from the ocean started rolling in from the coast. I’d hiked far enough uphill to see over the next ridge and down into the valley where the fog was pooling. The sun, behind this pool of fog, made it glow eerily. The haze also veiled the far ridge in a lavender mist.

Much taken with this spectacle, I snapped several photos. Now I’ve turned the experience into a mini painting (and probably will do more). The composition of this painting appears quite abstract, but it’s actually quite true to the photos I took. Just some of the colors are a little altered, to give it my own twist. With such a simple composition I was able to have a lot of fun with my Pointillist technique.

This painting is available matted $115, or matted and framed in a simple black frame $145.

Email inquiries welcome: info@barbarajcarter.com

“Tree at Pacheco” mini painting

“Tree at Pacheco”, 2008, acrylic on paper, 5×5″ matted to 14×11″

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m painting a series of “mini” paintings. This is the first to be finished.

I paint these little 5-inch square paintings using a very small brush. There’s something very freeing about this tiny format. These paintings come together much more quickly than my larger ones, allowing me to be more spontaneous. Also, I do enjoy the simpler compositions that allow the pointillist dots to shimmer.

The format of these paintings is important to their appeal. Most of my time is spent painting, but a large chunk also goes into putting together the “package” with the mat and frame. I glue foamcore spacers between the mat and the painting to float the mat above the surface of the painting. The process is rather fussy (I’m very nitpicky about getting everything perfect) but I think the final effect is worth it. (Note: the photo above shows the real mat in a mock frame. The real frames are on order and should be available in time for my next show.)

It’s hard to show in a photo, but the effect of the mat is quite three-dimensional, floating 1/4 inch above the painting. It’s like looking through a tiny window into a different world. It’s much cuter in real life, so I hope you’ll stop by one of my shows and see for yourself!

This painting is available matted $115, or matted and framed in a simple black frame $145.

Email inquiries welcome: info@barbarajcarter.com