Carol Jenkins

Bio

I transitioned from a successful psychotherapy practice to a full-time art career midway through my life. I have been painting for almost 20 years and write a monthly blog about creativity. My work has been collected and shown in galleries across the country as well as internationally and my paintings have been included in several collections, including Artists of the Bay Area and Wild Lands, by Jen Tough Galley. I maintain studios in the Bay Area as well as Mt. Shasta, California, where I'm surrounded by the wilderness that inspires my work.

Artist Statement

I am deeply stirred by something exciting and unpredictable about wild terrain. It is also why I am drawn to abstract painting. It is the unexpected that delights: an accidental drip that leaves a beautiful mark on my painting, a subtle shift in color that enlivens the entire piece.  My work is based on experimentation. I keep adding and subtracting layers of fluid acrylics, charcoal and oil pastel until I discover a composition I want to develop. David Pagel, LA Times art critic commented that he was moved by the juxtaposition of expressive detail and sweeping movement in my work. This is just what I’m after. The wilderness I love is teeming with riotous energy within the expansiveness of open space. When one of my paintings reflects this balance of animation and serenity, I know it is finished.