“Night Falling on the Fish Camps”
Acrylic with collage on canvas
40 x 30 in.
About the Artist:
Carmen Lee Nance Gambrill opened her eponymous gallery, carmen’s gallery, on Solomons Island, Maryland 35 years ago. Later she added a gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a gallery owner and certified picture framer immersed for years in color and design, Carmen’s senses were finely honed by the time she picked up a paintbrush. After studying at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, Carmen attended workshops from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Sicily, Italy where she began her rise in the painting world. In 1996, she organized “Carmen’s Paints the Town,” which would later become the popular and prestigious Solomons Plein Air Festival. The Festival annually raises tens of thousands of dollars for charitable organizations in the Solomons area. She continues to spearhead the event to this day. carmen’s gallery also presents educational painting workshops with nationally renowned instructors including Jason Sacran, Patrick Lee, Hiu Lai Chong, Mick McAndrews, Bethanne Kinsella Cople, and Marsha Staiger among others.
In 2013, before most of the U.S. had access to Cuba, Carmen led a cultural excursion for artists, providing participants the opportunity to submerge themselves in Cuban culture and explore the wonders of the island’s organic beauty, architecture and talent.
As an artist, Carmen paints intuitively, abstractly, and with passion. She often chooses acrylics because their versatility allows her to add layers, skins, texture, and sometimes collage and then scrape or sgraffito into the under layers for detail. Oils are another favorite medium—particularly when she works with cold wax and oils to present a completely different effect. And Carmen really loves LARGE! But whatever the size or medium, it is color and energy which dominate her work, and are the recognizable link between her very diverse paintings.
Carmen maintains a house and painting studio on Royal Street in New Orleans. When not there, she resides in Solomons Island or at her beach home in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina with her many feline rescue critters.
Gallery representation includes:
Carmen’s gallery, Solomons Island, Maryland
Ariodante Contemporary Craft Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
Gildea Contemporary Gallery, Key West, Florida
Carmen’s paintings have been featured in a variety of publications, most recently the current issue of Southern Maryland, This is Living.
Carmen’s gallery
14550 Solomons Island Road
Post office Box 466
Solomons, MD 20688
410.326.2549
410.610.4075
To view more of Carmen’s works, visit www.carmengambrillart.com.
