Painting
Painting
Tampa, FL
www.amyleighcarstensen.com
Artist Bio
I have had my hand in the collective arts for over thirty years. Clay, photography, drawing, scrapbooking, and design gave way to painting in my twenties. What began as an informal hobby developed into a part-time career as painting proved the perfect right-brain balance to practicing law. For a while I was attorney by day and artist by night. Then I found myself painting several hours each morning while listening to NPR and again all weekend. As my paintings grew in number and size, I fashioned a studio, sent out a few applications, and soon began exhibiting in fine art shows across the country.
I continue to work as an attorney but have adjusted my practice and schedule to allow more time to paint and travel (and enjoy life generally). It is the best of both worlds: a profession and a passion. The perfect challenge of balancing the two is limited only by the hours in the day.
I work predominantly in fine oils, favoring their superior properties for blending and unparalleled richness in color. Completely self-taught, I utilize a wet-on-wet technique, occasionally incorporating mixed media elements such as charcoal and oil sticks. I build multiple, textured layers of oils, scratch through to reveal earlier colors, and continue building the composition until the 2-D canvas achieves complexity and depth. I tend to work on several canvases at once, instinctively moving between them until the series unfolds. I may start with a specific palette, but I have no idea what a painting will look like until it is finished. The in-between creative process is an undefined, exciting journey.
I paint life as I experience it. Accordingly, my work is abstract but sometimes includes playful abstractions of life: square-headed birds, faces wearing pearls, mismatched flowers. Other pieces communicate merely through shape and color. The common thread connecting my portfolio is a strong, vibrant palette.
My influences include Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Basquiat, Miro, Dali, Nechita, and Liepke. I find inspiration in life’s separate and tangled moments and hope to convey that richness and poetry in my art
