paintings , and artists who would venture out and experience nature , and observe and then paint the essence of what they took from it . This is what I strive for in paint because rather than replicating something , I like to leave a lot of it to my imagination and what I felt when I was experiencing or observing something . I have spent many hours just watching horses do horse things or even watching grass blow in the wind . There is a certain kind of poetry and magic behind that .”
“ I use a combination of Eastern ancient painting materials and practices , combined modern materials and Western painting practices . I like their theory of using ink as the base , or what they call ‘ bone structure ’ of my paintings and then add color .” She loves the free-flowing nature of the ink and paints she uses , often allowing her medium to have a mind of its own . She ’ s painted in many different mediums , and loves working in black and white . Over time she ’ s tried to switch it up again , even trying out going back to working in charcoal , but she says , “ I think in ink now .”
Carrie works very wet and loose for the initial layers of the painting , and then builds up the figure and realism from there . The early parts of a painting are very much a conversation between Carrie , the subject , and the medium . “ I ’ ll do something , and then I ’ ll let the ink do something , so we have this back and forth . I love that when you get close to my paintings , you see the bleeds and these magic places inside the paintings . I have my favorite little spots .”
The viewer experience is an important consideration for Carrie . Her paintings come from a place of being up close and personal with her subjects , and she wants to grant her viewers that same pleasure . She dislikes encasing her paintings in glass for this reason . Instead , she mounts her paintings to board and varnishes them . “ I let people touch them too . Everybody is always worried because you ’ re not supposed to touch artwork , and I ’ m like , no , touch it !” She feels as though the varnish brings out depths of color that the traditional matting and glass simply cannot . Though
" I love and get a lot of inspiration from old Japanese and Chinese ink paintings
and artists who would venture out and experience
nature and observe and then paint the essence of what they took from it ."
“ Caesura ”
20 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE