Special Exhibitions, May, 2020
This particular collection of watercolors has a rather sarcastic name. The images are (as is my nature) to set up a narrative for the viewer. Some are obvious, some confusing perhaps, but all in fun!
I have been working for several years on a series of paintings concerned with color and light. Living in the coastal mountains of Big Sur, I experience the continuously changing atmospheric conditions brought about by the interaction of the land mass and the Pacific Ocean. Sunsets, storms, and fog drifting through the canyons provide an ongoing display of subtle colors and tonal values. I reduce these visual experiences to light, motion and simplified form, and ask the viewer to complete the picture in his or her mind
Fred Carvell is a colorist who creates contemporary semi-abstract images of the land inspired by scenes he finds in the central California coast near Carmel and in the Mediterranean countries of France, Italy, Portugal and Greece.
Using acrylic paint on acid free paper or canvas, he melds bright primary colors with luminous earth tones to create warm and harmonious landscapes or more abstract images drawn from scenes found in nature. His works range in size from small (8”x8”) to large (48”x60”). Most paintings fall into the smaller sizes.
He now lives in Carmel Valley with his wife where he paints daily.
Mark Farina’s oil paintings and watercolors have been exhibited in many juried shows and plein air events throughout the United States. He has gained national recognition and is the recipient of numerous awards. His work was also featured in 100 Ways to Paint Landscapes, Vol.1, 2004 by International Artist Magazine.
I began painting still life more seriously after visiting a workshop with Ovanes Berberian in Idaho. He typically paints still life’s in an outdoor setting where the colors and contrasts are vivid and seemingly exaggerated. Much like painting the landscape ‘en plein aire’, this type of painting leaves some artists feeling a stronger connection to nature and to the art itself.
Showing with Mark Farina and Erin Gafill is special for me as I have known and admired their still life painting for many years.
The Isolation Paintings – Color, composition and the sense of light are my usual obsessions. When I began painting for this show, the shelter in place order had just been handed down. What an opportunity to paint! But I avoided my easel for weeks. Instead of painting, I baked and knit and de-cluttered my bedroom and worked in my neglected garden. When I was ready to paint again, I understood what I wanted in this series. A sense of space. A sense of solitude. A sense of relationship between one and another, between one and many.
The blue cobalt jar – the tangerine – the red apples – and the spaces they inhabit became an alternative reality that expressed through visual metaphor the daily shift in my own perspective.
Sometimes the painting is more space than anything else.
Sometimes the objects seem to distance themselves from one another. Other times, the gathering feels more like huddling.
Apart, together. Together, apart.
I love these paintings and the new place they are exploring.
I love the spacious grays that support the vibrant chroma.
I love the movement of light across the spaces.
In these quiet paintings, I can feel the quietness. I can hear the birds outside the window, hear the waves softly crashing 800 feet below, hear the occasional car driving down the road.
Isolation – solitude – quietness.
Peace.