Featured Artwork: Carolina Elizabeth

“Rose in Silver Bud Vase”

8 x 10 in.

Oil on linen  

$360, available through the artist                                                           

Even as a little girl in Honduras, I’ve loved using my hands to create things whether on paper, of clay or pieces of fabrics stitched together. I’ve been fortunate to have the support of loving parents who encouraged my need to create art even if it meant they’d come home and the curtains had become my latest project. So, my parents and I always knew I would be an artist.

In 2006, long after marrying a wonderful husband who is my high school sweetheart, my biggest fan and favorite critic and having two beautiful girls who make wonderful studio company, I graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of Central Oklahoma.

In college, I found amazing professors who introduced me to many thoughts on art, new art skills and techniques. However, traditional techniques in oil painting were not included. So, in 2009 with some oil paints, a few brushes, a pochade (cigar) box, and a couple of instructional books, I embarked on my full time painting career, chronicling it in my previous blog. After eight years of painting, I am still learning and drawing inspiration from old masters such as Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Henri Fantin-Latour, and John Singer Sargent.

I would love to say my work has some deep meaning of love lost, the purpose of life, or some important social political statement, but that’s not the case. My intent is simply to capture the beauty that I see in nature, such as the flowers or beehives in my garden, and those items that show the hand of time or those that simply bring me joy.

In college I told a professor that I wanted to make pretty things. He said “that is the worst way to describe an artwork.” I believe pretty things have power. A small flower can carry deep and meaningful symbolism and can be even powerful enough to bring happiness in times of mourning. People have sacrificed freedom to acquire that which pleases their eye. Pretty things such as gold, precious stones or a even a tulip, have become the cause of wars or the bankruptcy of a nation, as in the Dutch tulip mania. There is a lot of power in pretty things and my fascination with them is what keeps me putting brush to canvas.

I have been honored  to have my work purchased by collectors worldwide. My work has been featured on the Jealous Curator and Create Magazine websites. And most recently, I was the recipient of a scholarship to attend the Oklahoma Art Conference. I continue to hone traditional oil painting techniques in my small home studio in Edmond, Oklahoma, where I paint pretty things and share them with others on my website.

Please visit my website to view new works and sign up for my  emails.