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Images of Eyes Gallery II
Nude Watercolor Paintings by Carol Carter
Missouri, United States

Carol Carter is an award-winning established painter from St. Louis, Missouri, United States, working primarily in watercolors, one of the most intimate art forms, and more recently, acrylics.  Her large-scale watercolors overflow with light, and display vibrant and vivid colors that are not only full of life but inspired by life itself.  Carol says "Having grown up in Florida, my strongest visual impression of an environment for human activity is water.  In much of my work, water provides the setting for anonymous figures.  Watercolors of nudes, as well as black and white nudes are in my portfolio.  The nude swimmer. . .is a signature theme."

Carol received her MFA from Washington University, St. Louis.  She received an MAA-NEA Fellowship in Painting and Works on Paper.  Carol was voted the "Best St. Louis Artist" by the St. Louis "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.

Carol's works have been exhibited extensively over the past 20 years, both regionally and nationally, including 25 one person exhibitions and numerous invitational and group exhibitions.  Her work is represented in many public and private art collections, including those of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Boatmen's National Bank, Citicorp, Leonard Slatkin, Price University, and Utah State University, among others.

Black & white nude watercolor (1995)  Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Untitled watercolor painting Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

"Black & white nude watercolor (1995)" presents Carter's technique at its most basic—denuded of color, except for a few subtle touches of prussian blue.  The entire painting is a mosaic of washes only—even in the woman's hair there are no brushstrokes or texturing effects.  Everything is built up from carefully interlocking wash fields and the liquid variations of value and pigment inside them.  Carter prefers to work in humid weather, which allows her to extend the time she can coax a wash, stroking the color and charging it with additional water and pigment to produce her trademark wash blossoms.  The remarkable aspect of this technique is its riskiness: the movement of blossoms is very difficult to anticipate or control, yet Carter uses them sculpturally, in the highlights or shadows on figures or objects, where the blossom must contour and shade exactly or the three dimensional illusion will be spoiled.  When they are successful, they add a unique surface energy to the forms; when they fail, an entire work may be ruined.  Carter accents these soft water effects by placing them in a very strong composition: the irregular negative space between the two faces bounded by the man's dark arm, the woman's arm echoing this enclosing effect along the space where their bodies touch.  But at the intimate focus, the two faces, the clarity turns into ambiguity.  The woman has averted face for reasons we do not understand.

   --- Review written by Bruce MacEvoy

Untitled watercolor painting by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Untitled watercolor painting by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Untitled watercolor painting by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Christina's World" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Google Me" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Naughty Girl" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter
Judged "Best in Show" at St. Louis (MO) Naughti Gras 2009

Watercolor painting entitled "Juggling the Divide" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "It's Not Who You 
Lie With, It's Who You Lie To," by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Know Any Good Knock Knock Jokes?" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Everything But the Bullet" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Watercolor painting entitled "Summer's End" by Carol Carter
Image Copyright © by Carol Carter

Self-portrait of artist Carol Carter entitled "iSelf" 
Watercolor painting Copyright © by Carol Carter

All images are © Copyright by Carol Carter and
may not be copied or reproduced in any form

If you wish to link to or tell others about this exhibit, the 
link to use is http://www.imagesofeyes.com/nudes/carter2.htm

See another exhibit of watercolor paintings by Carol in Images of Eyes Gallery I.

Carol's works are featured in the recently-published "Different Strokes--Watercolor" book from Quarto Publishing in London.  Several other watercolorists also exhibit their approach to watercolor.  The book is available at amazon.com and other sources.

Carol's website is http://www.carol-carter.com/.  

Carol's art blog is http://watercolorcarol.blogspot.com/.  Send an email to Carol:  carol@carol-carter.com

Bruce MacEvoy is the author of the internet's best and most comprehensive resource for watercolor painters (handprint.com).  His website is included in our best Art Links list.

Published Mar 14, 2008
Page updated Aug 20, 2009
Republished Mar 14, 2010

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