Carol Carlson, a graphic artist turned retiree, turned painter and printer, was recognized as Bella Vista's artist of the month for November 2019.
Carlson said she's been painting her whole life and a guide at Crystal Bridges since it opened, but after retiring from a graphic arts career she took a break from painting until about four years ago when she decided to check out some art classes at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
The award is a huge honor, she said, but she credits her work to the community and environment she lives in, which, she said, provides a great deal of inspiration.
"I really owe everything I've accomplished to all of you," she said.
Terry Wilson with the Bella Vista Arts Council said he knew Carlson because they both work as guides at Crystal Bridges and he's delighted to have her as the 23rd artist of the month.
"We think she's an extreme talent," he said. "She's been painting since she was in her teens."
Mayor Peter Christie said he was very impressed with Carlson's work.
"I have never seen so many different ... ways of expressing how you're feeling through different mediums," he said. "I'm just blown away."
Carlson has experimented with different painting styles, including watercolors, gouache, inks, etchings and others to create wildly different imagery and texture -- including some three-dimensional paintings designed to be experienced by touch as well as vision.
The subjects of her art vary and her work on display at the Artist Retreat Center during the presentation included abstract pieces, flowers, natural scenes and human-made objects inspired by a wide array of experiences and places.
"I pretty much take an image and abstract it to give it my own ideas," she said.
While most pieces are from the past few years, Carlson explained, a single piece in the show dated back to her first formal art class in 1964.
The piece, depicting a downtown Chicago street, is particularly special to her because she gave it to her mother and later found it framed, she said.
The centerpiece of the show was a series of production linocuts titled B'Ville Neons, including six images depicting neon signs in the Bentonville square, which Carlson said have a nostalgic feel.
Linocuts -- which have been done by prominent artists like Pablo Picasso -- are a new medium for her but one she's fallen in love with after doing her first image in a classroom setting, she said.
After one sign, she was hooked and looked for more, until she had a half dozen images for her series.
She's made multiple copies of each, with four sets up for sale to raise money for art scholarships for NWACC students.
But while she's made multiple prints, each one comes out a little bit different because they're made by hand.
It's tricky to print art this way, she said, because one has to put down a backward image and begin cutting away more and more image and reducing the print plate's footprint for each of the four to six ink transfers it will be used for.
"It's complicated," Carlson said. "There were 50 different impressions that had to be done to make 10 originals."
Kandy Stern was among those who came to view the presentation.
She was especially impressed with Carlson's watercolor work and she was impressed with the variety, she said.
"I think the work is lovely and it's varied," she said. "I like her use of light and mood."
General News on 11/20/2019