Carol Carter

Mixed Messages, each panel 30" x 22"

Carol Carter has been painting for 30 years -- exploring figures, places, and narratives. Her favorite narratives revolve around situations that face all of us -- including motherhood, passages of time, sisterhood, aging, connectedness, and other aspects of the human condition. Growing up in Florida, her strongest visual impression was of water as a center for human activity and, in much of her work, water provides the setting for anonymous figures. While evocative and sensual watercolors of swimmers are a signature theme, she is equally at home with dramatic botanical images as well as portraits. Her use of vibrant saturated color adds to the mysterious, seductive, intense and inviting images she paints.

Florida Corkscrew Nature Preserve, 40" x 60"

Swamp Blessed Morning, 22" x 30"

Carol received her MFA from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. She maintains a studio in St. Louis and teaches at the university level as well as conducting workshops throughout the country. She was awarded an MAA-NEA Fellowship in Painting and Works on Paper in 1994 and was voted Best St. Louis Artist by The Riverfront Times in 2000. In 2002 her work was chosen for the cover of New American Painting magazine and in 2003, the U.S. Embassy sponsored a solo exhibition of her work at the Teatro del Centro de Arte in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She was a visiting artist in Oslo and Stavanger, Norway in 1999, 2001, and 2003. The Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, GA held a retrospective of her work in 2006, and she also had an exhibition in Guayaquil, Ecuador in July 2008 and a retrospective at East Central College in Fulton, MO in 2009. Different Strokes, published in 2008 by Quarto in London, England, featured her work both in the book and on the book cover. Her work is represented in many public and private art collections.

Men Are So High Maintenance, 40" x 60"

Renewal, 40" x 30"

Please visit Carol's blog to see more of her work.

Genie Even

Camellia, 11" x 20"

For Genie Even, the greatest excitement about a painting comes with the initial concept, and the greatest pleasure comes when all the components in the process meld to form the painting she visualized. She is drawn to dramatic light patterns, strong values, and exciting color. After sketching from her photo compositions, she begins a careful process of underpainting, developing values, and adjusting the color using transparent watercolor pigments. Although most of her work is realistic, her subject matter varies from floral closeups and unusual plants to figurative works and still lifes. Her work blends a high level of detail with arresting compositions and clear, brilliant color.

Tree Study, 20" x 14"

Genie is a native Californian who graduated as an art major from Scripps College; the well-known watercolorist Millard Sheets was both her professor and advisor. When she returned to full time art in the early 1990s, she studied with many talented watercolorists, including Cheng Khee Chee, Lian Quan Zhen, Karen Frey and Jane Hofstetter, among others. She is a signature member of Watercolor West, the California Watercolor Association and the Texas Watercolor Society. Her work has won many awards, including Best of Show at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, and one of her paintings is in the permanent collection of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA.

Pre-teen Cool, 20" x 14"

Since moving to Knoxville, Tennessee in 2005, Genie has won awards in exhibits at regional art centers in Oak Ridge and Fountain City as well as at the Tennessee Art Association and the Art and Cultural Alliance. She continues to exhibit in national shows, including the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and the Watercolor Societies of Missouri, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas. She is a member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society and the Art Market Gallery in Knoxville.

Croton, 28" x 20"

Fuji Reflections II, 14" x 20"

Please visit Genie's blog to see more of her work.

Jeannie Vodden

Tiny Dragon Just Simmering, 22" x 15"

Jeannie Vodden's interest in the complex textures and patterns found in both natural and man-made objects is the starting point for most of her paintings. She adds natural light, an occasional figure, sometimes a dash of fantasy, and pulls it all together with a limited palette. Her preference for the complex play of form and light is balanced by her preference for a very simple palette -- starting with only three colors and seldom using more than six or eight -- and glazing many transparent layers to achieve great richness and depth of color. Although she doesn't paint full-fledged fantasy art, she enjoys adding touches of fantasy to her portraits to convey an interaction with the magic of life. In Jeannie's words, "My desire is to bring to my work the imagination and curiosity which is so often found in children and to combine that sense of wonder with an experienced artist's hand."

Remnants, 22" x 30"

Nestled, 11" x 15"

Jeannie lives in the Sierra foothills of northern California. She spends her time painting and teaching in her cottage studio, maintaining her garden, and browsing antique and thrift stores for subjects for her work. She returned to school in 1993 to study art at American River College in Sacramento. She studied with Sacramento artist Gary Pruner, whom she credits for not only for his marvelous teaching and passion for painting, but also for his generous support and encouragement as she became a full-time painter and teacher. Jeannie has been conducting watercolor workshops throughout California as well as other states for 15 years and also teaches regular classes at The School of Light and Color in Fair Oaks, CA and at University Art in Sacramento, CA. She has shown her work extensively in the California Gold Country and in the Central Valley -- including Stockton, Lodi, and Sacramento -- and has been accepted into two of the prestigious Crocker Kingsley shows at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Jeannie has won numerous awards for her work, and the State of California has purchased two of her paintings.

Mystic Companions, 30" x 22"

Handling the Muse, 15" x 22"

Please visit Jeannie's website to see more of her work.

A short interruption...

I'm taking a couple of weeks off to be with my family following my father's death. I will be back to posting a regular feature in two weeks.

Kay Duffy

Pine Tree Patterns, 21" x 29"
gouache over acrylic

Kay Duffy finds the freedom, spontaneity and speed of watercolor well-suited to her temperament. Her watercolors are painted in a "wet and loose" or "juicy" style, using bright colors, strong shapes, and broad brushstrokes to depict impressions of individual flowers and trees as well as natural landscapes and buildings. She especially enjoys the freedom of painting on location -- en plein air -- both in the U.S. and in her travels to other countries.

As part of her ongoing interest in experimenting with different approaches, Kay has recently been exploring the use of gouache (an opaque watercolor using the same pigments and binders as traditional transparent watercolor, but with the addition of white pigment). Working on papers which she has coated with a layer of brightly colored acrylic paint, she allows bits of the undercoat to peek through, adding zest to the finished paintings.

Grand Canyon – Pumpkin, 14" x 18"
gouache over acrylic

Mt. Diablo, 21" x 29"
gouache over acrylic

Although Kay's educational background is in the sciences, she has been painting for over 40 years. Always endeavoring to learn and grow, she has taken workshops with such nationally known artists as Jane Hofstetter, Gerald Brommer, Barbara Nechis, Zoltan Szabo, Judy Betts, Marilyn Simandle, Frank Webb, Cheng Khee Chee, and many others. Her interest in plein air painting fits quite well with her love of outdoor recreation and she has been active in community affairs with a focus on parks and open space preservation. Kay is an active member of several local art associations and is a signature member of the Society of Western Artists. She teaches watercolor and collage at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California.

Over the Coast – Bixby Bridge, 21" x 29"
gouache over acrylic

Snowy Trees, 29" x 21"
gouache over acrylic

Please visit Kay's website to see more of her work and get information on her galleries and classes.

Sally Bookman

White Azalea, 22" x 30"

Although Sally Bookman lives in the Monterey Bay Area in California, with its abundance of subjects for painting, she also loves to travel and finds inspiration from exploring new places. Most of her paintings depict her love of local scenes (whether in California, Mexico, the Caribbean, or Europe), harbors, old homes by the sea, and colorful gardens. Feeling that landscape paintings can too often become trite, she uses strong design and lively color to inject excitement into her work. Sally says, "I want viewers to look at my paintings and be intrigued, curious, and captivated. If I can make them pause for a moment and recall a special time or event in their lives that brings back happy memories or evokes a feeling of pleasure, then I am happy."

Iris Garden, 30" x 22"

Sally's route to being a successful watercolorist began in London, UK, where she studied art at St. Martin's School of Art and Design and hung her paintings on the iron railings along the Thames, hoping to sell to passing art lovers. At age 19, she moved to Australia and then, a few years later, to California. After earning a doctorate in social anthropology, she moved to Santa Cruz, California and began work as a real estate agent. A decade later, she decided to take up watercolor as a part-time recreation. Although she studied art at both Long Beach State College and Cabrillo College, she feels most indebted to the many instructors whose workshops she has attended across the country over the past 20 years. While she finds herself drawn to experimenting with collage and acrylic from time to time, she always returns to watercolor.

San Miguel, 22" x 30"

Caribbean Harbor, 24" x 18"

Capitola Cafe, 24" x 18"

Please hop over to Sally's website to see more of her work.