Primarily self-taught, Carol Carpenter has distinguished herself as one of the prime movers in contemporary realistic watercolor painting. Whether large or small, her paintings resonate with a strong sense of place.

Growing up in a small town in the Kansas prairie, Carpenter had the early advantage of an artist parent. Her mother often took the young Carol along with her to art classes, where she absorbed insights about how serious artists approached their subjects and their mediums of choice. In over 20 years of living in New Mexico and painting the iconic subject matter that makes the region unique in so many ways, Carpenter has enjoyed contrasting the old with the new. Ancient adobe buildings seem even older with tourists milling about; a child’s new tricycle parked beside an homo alludes to the aromas of countless loaves of Indian bread and traditions begun centuries ago.

Two new coffee-table books feature Carpenter’s paintings of flowers that thrive in the high desert and the adobe structures that span so many cultures and centuries. Her depictions of hollyhocks are faithful and alive, and like all her work, give the viewer the full visual and emotional experience of a subjects innate meaning and essence.

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 ©Carol Carpenter-All rights reserved

Surrounded by the brushes, pans, tubes, and rag papers that fill her studio, Carpenter says :

“I want to portray what I see and also what I feel even when it means adding or subtracting elements to make a more compelling impression of being there”