Biography

Born in Macon, Georgia, Carlyn always drew as a child.  From cartoon characters to art lessons as a teenager to a BA in art from Huntingdon College in Montgomery Alabama her direction, love, and purpose has always been in art. Returning to school in her early thirties to gain  better foundational instruction, she attended the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore for two years studying drawing and painting. She has taken additional workshops and classes in handmade papermaking, silver jewelry, collagraphs and etching.

Always returning to her first passion, drawing and painting she continues to develop her love of color, movement, line and shape. Currently she has created a new series of Minimal or Reductive black and white paintings that change from a quiet stillness to dynamic angles and movement with line. From her sketches they are gradually developing into curves, some more static, others flying like a ribbon thrown into the air. Exploration of color is on the horizon for this series.

In addition, her love of edges, line, texture and raised surfaces can be seen in her Dimensional paintings that mold wet canvas to canvas. Some are white on white giving a sense of air and space and cleaness of surface, while others play with color.

Her abstract paintings have come from a huge collection of small oil pastels done over the years. Finally they have been painted onto canvas. These continue to explore color, surface, line, shape and movement. Included in these abstract paintings are a group of black and white paintings and color paintings, some with solid shapes, others energetic, bold brush strokes.