About the Artist
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Painting is my passion, and my primary creative outlet. The possibilities are endless, and countless painters over the years have pushed the medium’s limits in form, process, and technique. My preferred method is to dip my hands in paint and work the canvas manually, putting a part of myself into the finished work, and taking advantage of the remarkable power of human touch. The layers of my paintings are memory on canvas, a record of the time, history, and story of the painting as is transformed from idea into reality. I could paint on one canvas forever, but instead I force myself to do several at once, constantly changing my perspective and inspiration and allowing the works-in-progress to enter into dialogue with one another. One painting often inspires a change in another, so that each individual work is improved through the synthesis of multiple ideas and inspirations.
I complete each painting with a single goal in mind, regardless of subject: to transfer the expressive energy and moods I feel as I dance with the paints and canvas into the final product. No performance can ever be truly repeated or recorded, but each of my paintings is a physical manifestation of the performance and process of the making, it’s struggles, triumphs, and joys. While my preferred medium is acrylic on canvas, I often draw into the painting directly with stabilo pencil and oil pastels to achieve richer expressions of energy in multimedia. Painting with complete abandon is always my mission.
BIOGRAPHY
Carrie Clayden is a native Californian, growing up in Los Gatos, Ca. She received her Bachelors of Arts from UCSC in 1995 and now resides in Carmel Valley, Ca. Carrie’s work plays with light and motion in the same beat, her brushwork emphasizing the texture of the paint. Her loose and semi-abstracted style suggest structure but leaves the detail to the viewer, allowing for fresh interpretations of familiar forms. Her recent series on horses juxtaposes with her well-known floral works to concentrate the energy of her process into a more rigid composition than the flowers’ freedom, showing mastery over her technique as it adapts to diverse subjects.
Carrie is an internationally renowned artist, shown in galleries in both the United States and Europe.
