Featured Artist Carole Guthrie

Artist Carole Guthrie paints her abstract acrylic paintings intuitively, from the “inside out”. Enjoy her portfolio and learn more by visiting her website.

 

 

Painting has always been a passion of mine.

 

 

I lived in the Midwest for half of my life, where I attended the Chicago Art Institute. I moved to New England and went back to school, first attending UMass in Amherst where I got my bachelors and then MassArt in Boston where I earned my graduate degree.

 

 

Under the influence of the abstract expressionist artist and teacher John Grillo at the University of Massachusetts, my portfolio evolved from realism to abstract imagery. MassArt gave theory back to my painting. I would rather paint than eat.

 

 

Painting and teaching art are both passions that have served me well during my lifetime. My husband was also a fine painter. Together we devoted our life’s work to the pursuit of creating the best paintings we could make.

 

 

When my husband was overcome with a fatal disease, I kept on painting. After he passed, art became my reason to be.

 

 

I have spent over thirty years building up a creative strength in my work. From years of looking at the work of Kadinsky, Hoffman, Eva Hesse, Duchamp and Basquiat, my realistic watercolors transformed into abstract acrylic works and my personal style emerged. I like the quote by William deKooning, “You have to change to stay the same.”

 

 

My technique is based on painting from the inside out. I never know how the finished work will look, but every shape and color become a part of the finished composition. The following excerpt from the poem I wrote in 2014, My Acrylic Choices, helps clarify:

 

 

“…but I leap to experience what frightens me.

A bold flat stroke screams energy in diagonals.

There is a rhythm to the order.

The overwhelming black shape at the bottom is

the dark angel of death and grief.

Older now, I step back from the canvas of my life.

It’s not finished, but it is taking a shape.

There’s a unity of choices in the composition.

As I continue on, a work in progress,

who knows what colors will appear?”

 

 

 

Today, my work can be found in the MGM Resorts, the marketing firm of Kobie in St. Petersburg, Florida and at The Edison Group in New York City. In addition, my paintings are in personal collections in the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

Artist Carole Guthrie invites you to follow her on Facebook.

 

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