"Beneath a Summer Sky: Watercolors by Carol Carter" at Parkland Gallery
Watercolor exhibit and special workshop at Giertz Gallery
"Beneath a Summer Sky: Watercolors by Carol Carter" will open Monday, June 6 and run through July 28 at the Giertz Gallery at Parkland College.
The exhibit features paintings from St. Louis artist Carol Carter and is accompanied by a special watercolor workshop from June 14 to June 16, sponsored by the Barbara and Terry England Endowment for Watercolor Arts Instruction, led by Carter and focusing on her approach to the medium. For more information or to register for the workshop, please visit parkland.edu/CarolCarterWorkshop.
An artist reception will be held on Thursday, June 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with live music. Carter will give a gallery talk at 6:15 p.m. As with all Giertz Gallery programs, the exhibit, reception, and lecture are free and open to the public. For more information about the gallery and additional programming for the exhibition, please visit parkland.edu/CarolCarterExhibit.
Inspired by current events and her personal experiences, Carol Carter uses nature and the human figure as recurring themes throughout her work. Her preference for saturated color and larger scales contributes to an intensity or tension in her paintings. These works can be seductive, powerful, and sometimes strangely disquieting. The exhibition includes portraits of some of the many dogs adopted during the pandemic. These portraits of loyal canine companions bring to light the extra love and support animals provided (and continue to provide) throughout the psychological toll of isolation people endured during the pandemic.
"We are excited to have Carol's work, which is so appropriate for the summer, in the gallery," said Giertz Gallery Director Lisa Costello. "Her work is timely and provocative. We are equally excited that she has agreed to teach a workshop. So many people in the community have wanted watercolor instruction, and we are fortunate to have this opportunity. It's wonderful that we have the support of the Barbara and Terry England Endowment for Watercolor Arts Instruction to host this workshop."
"My influences early in my career included David Hockney and Eric Fischl, and as I have matured in my art, Joseph Raffael," Carter said. "Coincidentally, I worked exclusively in watercolor for the first ten years of my life as an artist. Today, I work in both watercolor and acrylic. My goal is to create work with intimacy, mysteriousness, and sensuality. But at its best, my work also has an edge–something in it that takes a moment, a second look, an effort to comprehend."
Carter’s watercolors have been in juried and invitational exhibitions in Europe, China, Hong Kong, the US Virgin Islands, Morocco, and the United States. She is an advisory board member of American Watercolor Weekly, and has had her work featured in International Arts Magazine, Art of Watercolour, Watercolor Artist, and L'Aquarelle Magazine. In 2012 she was an AIRE fellow for the Everglades National Park. She is part of the Art in Embassies Program, with art currently in the American Embassy in Montenegro. Her honors and awards include Master Signature Member status, American Women Artists (2019), Master Signature Member status, Heartland Art Club (2019), and the 2020 Snehil Lifetime Achievement Award, Snehilsrijan, India.
Summer gallery hours are Monday through Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The gallery is partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency
All events in the accessible gallery are free and open to the public. Parkland College is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution. For accommodation, call 217/353-2338 or email accessibilityservices@parkland.edu. For more information on Giertz Gallery, call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit parkland.edu/gallery.