ARTIST BIO
All About Carey's Place Studio and Gallery
Artist’s Statement
I think as an artist your style changes as you develop, but for me it changes sometimes because of how I want to portray something or how I want the audience to feel when they look at a piece or even how I feel about the subject matter.
My style will also change when I use a different medium.
Undeniably, though, there seems to be a few things that don’t change too much. I tend to paint large open skies in a particular way, and I have a certain style for painting trees.
That said, sometimes I just want to loosen up and paint something different, use a different colour palette or more knife than brush, or play with different coloured canvases as you can with different coloured paper. My art, to me is a journey and if you don’t stray off the path from time to time, you might not find that something new and exciting. So though not everything I do jumps out and says undeniably, “I was painted by Carey”, there are usually some tell-tale signs in how I like to blend colours or the fact that I have a tendency to weight my pictures to the left side. Sometimes I like photo realism but there are times when I like a more loose approach. I think this variety in my work is exciting and keeps me excited about trying new things. I also believe that the fact that I work in more than one medium broadens my scope on technique. It is interesting to see how a typical watercolour technique would work with acrylic or casein.
There is no one subject matter I prefer. Landscape, waterscape, cityscape, florals, animals and portraits each present a challenge unique to the subject. I like the challenges as they help me stay creative. Painting the light, that is what I really try to accomplish, whether it is the glitter of sunlight across the snow, the glimmer and shimmer on water, the warm soft light of a sunrise, the fiery light of a sunset or the flickering light that comes through the trees. Light is what brings a painting to life; it can create drama or a sense of peace. Contrasts whether subtle or strong create interest, calm or excitement.
I paint primarily in acrylic now, but there was a time I painted only in oils and another where I focused on watercolour. These were long periods, years, devoted to one medium. I like chalk pastels, particularly for portraits of children and babies. Most of my work is done in acrylic on gallery stretched canvas. I don’t like to paint on hard surfaces as I like the movement of canvas and its response to the pressure of the brush.
Where will my art journey take me, I’m not sure. I like where I have been, the road I have travelled, the side paths I have taken. I look forward to many more years on this journey.
Carey Carrick