Glynnis Carter's natural elements (July 2008)
The Journal’s Barbara Hodgson talks to the artist Glynnis Carter who finds painting comes naturally.
Nature invades the artwork of Art Evolution Glynnis Carter in more ways than one. Not only does the local landscape provide the Alston artist with constant inspiration but the environment also directly contributes to her work.
Before starting a painting, Glynnis leaves a canvas outdoors for several weeks.
Neighbours might think her barmy, says Glynnis, but she loves the effects. During its time outside, the canvas accumulates marks made by soil, rain and decay which Glynnis uses as a starting point for her textured landscapes.
It was the seasonal changes of the countryside around her home which first started Glynnis thinking about the cycle of decay. “I started putting canvases outside with stones on them and the soil and rain would mark them. Sometimes people must think I’m barmy as I sometimes hang them on the washing line and they start to fray. It’s just a starting point for paintings – and they develop very organically.”
Over the following weeks, Glynnis will build up layers of colour and texture, letting what happens on the canvas during the process determine the evolution of the painting. “I don’t paint specific locations or views – this is all a vehicle for making a painting. It’s the paint and materials that really interest me.”
Glynnis sometimes can’t resist the temptation to change her work until it satisfies her.
And she’s been known to remove a picture from an exhibition to rework it. She was taken by the urge during an exhibition she held at a gallery in Northumberland. “I was looking at this particular painting and thought, ‘I don’t like it; there’s something about it’,” she confesses. “I said, ‘I’m taking it home’. So, I did and I threw some paint on it and turned it up the other way and magically it worked.”
Glynnis, originally from London, has studied and worked in the North East since 1967. She used to be a teacher, but now paints full-time.
It’s the wild landscapes of the North Pennines, near the home she’s lived in since 2000, that feed her creative impulses. She loves the colour and structure of the rock formations, hills and moorland and her studio at her home affords views over the fells, which change spectacularly in different light and weather. “I’m interested in horizons and how light will catch the horizon at different times of the day.”
Rather than paint particular places, however, she likes it if her work simply reminds viewers of places they themselves know. For this reason, she rarely names her paintings, preferring to give them a number. Often, she hangs work in her living room to “see if I can live with it and if it works for me”. If it doesn’t quite please, it’s taken back down and out come the brushes. “When the canvases have been outside, they sometimes have a hole in them or might tear and stretch. The paint takes differently and in that way it makes paint very experimental. If I don’t like what happens I’ll just keep the bits I like.” She might repaint or she’ll rip off a portion she likes and stick it on a new canvas. Sometimes she’ll tear up a picture. Some paintings will be developed over months. She might put one away and take it up at a later date.
The question might then arise, how do you know when it’s finished? And Glynnis says it’s important not to overdo things.
“It’s about balance within the painting of light and dark and texture – the formal elements. They have to be right for me.” Glynnis has held exhibitions in London, Cumbria, at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle and again at Fifiefofum, where last autumn she exhibited Painted Desert, based on photographs she took of arid landscapes during a 2,500-mile road trip through America with her husband earlier that year.
She started her mixed-media paintings with a textured surface of wax or paste, then layered oil paint, acrylic paint and oil pastels to form rich contrasts of colour and texture to echo those of Nature. Now she has started printing onto canvas then painting over that, and is further developing her vibrant style.
July 17, 2008 2:15pm
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