CAROLYN JARVIS
CREATING COLORFUL, SPONTANEOUS OIL PAINTINGS
Oil Paintings
"LOCAL OCEAN AND VINEYARD SCENES ARE OFTEN SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR MY OIL PAINTINGS."
Sonoma County, California seascapes, coastal cliffs, vineyards, sunsets and cloudscapes are favorite subject matter of Carolyn Jarvis’ oil paintings. Her loose, painterly paintings feature vibrant color and often thick texture made with a brush or palette knife.
At the beginning of her artistic journey, she painted in watercolor and then acrylics. Her preferred medium now is oil paint as she likes its richness, texture, soft edges and slow drying time. For three years, Carolyn took painting classes from Van Waldron, who had been a student of the famous Russian master painter Sergei Bongart. She has taken painting workshops given by Charles Waldman in Yosemite and Erin Dertner in Mendocino, CA.
She has shown her work at Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek, Sebastopol Center for the Arts and Graton Gallery in Sonoma County, as well as at Balletto, St. Frances, and Chateau Diana wineries. Carolyn is captivated by the process and challenge of creating colorful, spontaneous oil paintings that attempt to capture the light. In addition to landscapes, she enjoys painting still life and abstracts.
Process:
Carolyn gets inspiration from memories and her own photographs of local scenes. She paints in her Sebastopol home studio and sometimes in plein air.
Before beginning a painting, she does a small pencil sketch. With vine charcoal she quickly sketches the outlines of a painting on a canvas or panel. Large shapes are then blocked in with a brush and thin paint. Then she adds thicker paint, texture, and detail with a brush or palette knife, paying attention to the edges. The following day, she looks at her painting to see if it needs any corrections and to add highlights.
