About the Artist :: Carolyn Caldwell
Carolyn Caldwell is a painter and pastel artist living on Deer Isle. She studied photography and art at University of Montana, San Francisco State and Universite de Strasborg. She received a degree in Architecture from Boston Architectural Center and moved to the Caribbean where she designed houses for 16 years. She returned to painting in 1987. Caldwell’s subjects often begin in the landscape or in architecture. She is concerned with the dramatic way the changing light can transform the landscape into abstraction, architecture into geometric composition. She has been exhibiting and selling her work since 1995 in Maine and the Caribbean.
She is a signature member of Pastel Painters of Cape Cod, Pastel Painters of Maine, and Deer Isle Artists Association. She gives pastel workshops and private instruction in her studio in Deer Isle.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I was educated first as a photographer, then as an architect before turning to painting. The photograghy taught me to compose. The architecture taught me the importance of solidity and simplicity.
Why do I paint? To share my perceptions with others. We all see differently and sharing our vision enriches us and helps us understand one another.
What do I paint? Vanishing beauty. The world is changing rapidly. Development is overtaking the natural world. Unique places are becoming homogenized. The natural environment is disappearing. We can’t take a beautiful landscape for granted any more because tomorrow there may be a cell phone tower in the center of it or a strip mall in it’s place. My hope is that artists can slow the rush. Maybe we can make people appreciate what is there and care enough to preserve it before it is lost forever.