Transformation of a Painting

The top painting began as the painting below. I thought I had resolved the painting, cleaned my palette and brushes, shut off the lights and returned home. Next morning when I arrived back at the studio I noticed that the dark spaces between the branches of one of the larger trees on the right was too dark in value and came forward rather than recede. I thought it would be simple enough to make the adjustment. One small adjustment led to another. I added a bit more definition to the small, isolated tree in the mid-ground area on the far right. I lost the subtlety I had liked in the grassy area. The painting lost its spark for me.

I'm not sure what happened next. Perhaps I began making a few more adjustments. At some point, the painting began to take on a new life, a far more vibrant life than the original version. The image began to have a heartbeat and I responded by giving it air to breath and space through which to move. I have had this experience many times while painting with watercolor, but only recently have I experienced it while oil painting.

Transformation is thrilling. Allowing the painting to go in a totally new direction resulted in a far stronger painting.

Abandon

Creating Freddie the Cockroach for Andrea Kramer's Butterfly Project delighted me. After painting in oil for the past eight months, returning to watercolor refreshed my sense of spontaneity with paint.

Unveiled - the Anatomy of a Painting which hung at Monsoon Gallery in Bethlehem throughout the month of October is now behind me. I am pleased by Geoff Gehman's review in the Morning Call.

Visual Arts

By Geoff Gehman of The Morning Call November 2, 2008

FIVE ELEMENTS, FIVE SKILLS

Chris Carter's show at Monsoon is a showcase of five artistic elements: color, line, shape, texture and value. It's also a showcase of her five-tool talents.

The resident of Califon, N.J., is a versatile, canny portraitist. Nicole, an extreme closeup in oil, features a fiery curtain of hair over one eye, a snaking blue shadow over the other eye and an air of fragile mystery. Watercolor/acrylics of nude women are splashy, tattooed landscapes. A pastel of a skeleton has glowing teal bones, a clever carnival touch.

Especially engaging is Between Here and There, a series of oils of fields, forests and roads. Carter easily blends lacily veiled hues, slaloming perspectives and bubbling macadam.

Carter's drawings are just as dynamic. Inky squiggles of dancers are charmingly breezy; a pencil illustration of a boy dreaming of adventures with his collie is just plain charming.