Carolyn Land on Painting The Circle of Life

By Carolyn Land
See her work in Vol. IV #2

I paint to find peace in a chaotic world.  Painting becomes my meditation.

I believe that the most authentic experience one can have is with nature. I am fascinated by the intricate designs that are created within the small space of one’s vision.

The lines, forms, colors, and textures of the natural elements are what motivate my art. In the sands of time, I want to leave a record, that man appreciated the beauty of the Earth—it’s geological history, and how it has nourished and nurtured mankind with its beauty.

All nature has texture, so it became so right that I would find a way to interpret nature with texture.

In this series, The Circle of Life, I use various products to build a painting surface: gesso, fiber paste, rice papers, molding paste, crackle paste.  Each one has a different quality and texture, and takes the paint differently, thereby lending interest and making the viewer look more carefully. My painting process is like the seasons.

I start painting the “dormancy of winter,” creating a surface of texture which is as white as the winter snow:

I then take my textured surface and bring life to it using a gold wash, like raking away the debris of winter, so the shoots of new growth can be made visible on what was the white surface of the winter landscape. I find the crevices, cracks, plains, and rills.

Next, by using color, I bring life and meaning to yet a new season of my painting. I add detail and warmth, delineating shapes and creating form.

 

Finally, in the fullness of time, a painting is born: “Sacred Earth,” a meditation on the beauty of Earth, the seen and unseen.

Visit Carolyn Land’s website.