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Painting became an early means of expression for me as I watched my father in his studio. He would spend most of his free time in front of the easel, a fat cigar dangling from a corner of his mouth. The smell of turps and paint mingled with “Brazil 333” gave me a whisp of the big wide world out there. It wanted to be embraced with a bold flourish of the paint brush.
I
produced my first little oil painting at the age of eight, and I also
pottered around with clay in my mother’s studio after school. She was a
sculptress with a deep love for the organic natural form - such as the
texture of rocks, crystals, streaks, bubbles or knots in wood. I share
this fascination, which only deepened when I studied geography;
nature’s ways of accumulating and taking away - in my modest way I am
trying to do just that on canvas.
“ I’ve been a keen admirer of Carola’s work for the last ten years, which I find really stimulating both emotionally and intellectually. Her brilliant and subtle use of colour is allied with a most varied and inventive range of constructive ideas, and I think she is a seriously underrated artist. ” Leo Sharratt, Scottish painter
It ‘s the borderline, the threshold between two opposites, that attracts my attention. Soft, fluttering transitions, stark opposites, organic shapes reaching out into a different space, the above and underneath of things, all in motion. It’s a song and a dance, really!
“ I know and appreciate Carola’s paintings for over 30 years. In the course of her working life she overcame the polarity of abstraction and figurative art. Sensuality of colours and the manifold associations of a catathymic pictorial experience I see as the mental foreground of her art, its backdrop being the creative freedom of an individual with a mind of her own.” Professor Peter Michael Hamel; University for Music and Theatre, Hamburg
Abstraction
merely hints at definitions rather than imposing them. The onlooker can
indulge in associative, creative thinking. Creating new ideas: that’s
being inspired, isn’t it?
“ Carola’s work has a wonderful sense of the ethereal. It takes you onto a journey into the unknown, or, shall I say: never quite known. I look at her work every day, and every day I discover something different. Her work is well crafted, somewhat mysterious and, without any doubt, highly original. ” Hugh Murdoch, Scottish painter; www.hughmurdoch.com
Stepping into the unknown is like opening the 13th door in
the fairy-tale. Some touch the void by doing dare-devil
things, or they meditate with great commitment. I can't do that. So I just sit and paint. Whichever way - when you open the 13th door you will stumble upon a mirror. "Carola translates her life, her emotions and desires into her painting, and here she comes face to face with herself. What makes a personality - such as humour, intelligence, sensuality, honesty - finds congruency in Carola’s artistic work.
I have been a close friend of Carola’s for many years. She had held outstanding and higly successful exhibitions in my gallery (Paulusgalerie in Albstadt, Southern Germany). We had a couple of shared exhibitions in London and Heidelberg."
I cannot show up with a conventional list of achievements in the established art world. I was a writer, a mother, I live now in a small land-based community. At times painting was on the back burner, but by and large it has been and remains a most reliable companion.
“ Everyone who is in need of inner spiritual renewal should sit in front of Carola’s paintings for a while. The images seem to embody hidden dimensions inviting you to re-discover yourself within their depth. This is not the sort of work to be lined up shoulder to shoulder and paraded past. Each painting deserves a wall to itself. The medium is traditional oil, although this is of secondary importance. It is the weaving and over-layering of colour and personally inspired spirit which I recognise as something unique in the world of contemporary painting. ”
Harley Miller, artist; www.harleymiller.com |
