Artist's Drawing & Inspiration
A Passion for Pastels
Discovering pastels started a love affair that renewed this artist’s passion for Australian landscapes and seascapes.
Carol was born at Mt. Pleasant in the Adelaide Hills in 1951. She loved drawing and painting at school but it was not until 1979 that she began taking art classes. Having been a Veterinary Nurse prior to marrying, she loved painting animal portraits, especially cats, first of all using oils and later working in pastel and acrylics. She regularly exhibits in the cat exhibitions held by the Pepper Street Gallery, Magill, South Australia. These exhibitions are held about every two years during the Fringe Festival in February, and the last one was held in 2013.
She inherited her artistic genes from her mother but didn’t put them into practice until after her two sons were born. She painted in oils for quite a few years then moved on to watercolour and pen and wash, painting old buildings which she particularly enjoyed. In 1998 she felt she needed a new direction, and this was when she was introduced to the vibrancy of pastels. This began a real love affair that renewed her passion for the Australian landscape and seascapes, as pastel enabled her to capture the beauty and drama she had long wanted to do.
Carol and her husband Ray have travelled many thousands of kilometres in their 4WD to access many out-of-the-way locations to capture that perfect scene. Carol has been successfully winning prizes in many local art competitions, and her paintings can also be found in many parts of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, England, Germany, Japan and Asia.
In 2007 she relocated to Goolwa on the Fleurieu Peninsula where the River Murray meets the sea, as she wanted to be closer to the ocean and the sand dunes of the Coorong, two subjects that she particularly loves to paint. She says, “There is nothing more stimulating than rising early of a morning and trekking down to the
Sir Richard Peninsula and waiting for the sun to rise in the dunes. Watching
the wildlife living in the dunes and walking over to the ocean when no one else is in sight is the most uplifting feeling”. She takes hundreds of photos and returns to her studio to try to recapture what she has experienced during the morning.
She had a lifelong dream to live closer to the coast and finally it has been realised. As a young child her mother would take Carol and her sister and brother to Brighton Beach for the summer holidays, so it is quite likely that childhood memories have drawn her to the sea. Her home and studio is actually only a stone’s throw from the River Murray.
It is a common sight to see Carol and her dog Zoot (a Lurcher) set off from home at 5.30am, camera bag slung over her shoulder, going for a morning walk along the river to watch the sunrise. Zoot quickly learned to be patient and still when the camera came out of the bag, also not to step off the side of the many little jetties (after ending up in the cold water one morning). After moving to Goolwa she built her own studio/gallery at home, calling it the Sand Drift Gallery, and it is open most days.
She joined the Pastel Artists of South Australia when it began in 2001, being active on the committee for several years and exhibiting regularly with the group. In 2005 she won Best in Show and won the Gold Medal award with a painting of the coast at Elliston on the Eyre Peninsula.
Most of the prizes Carol has won are since she began working in pastel, but she still enjoys working in acrylic and drawing in graphite. When pastelling she works on a variety of paper surfaces including Canson Mi-Teines TEX, AS Colour Fix, and Canson pastel paper, but her very favourite surface is Fisher 400 that she buys from the UK. Fisher 400 only comes in a sandy tone and so therefore doesn’t suit every scene, but she likes the darker tones in the other papers, particularly the dark blues.
The pastels she most commonly uses are A.S., Rembrandt, Unison, Schmincke and Windsor & Newton (which are no longer made). A.S. seems to be one of the few companies that makes a deep purple called Flinders Blue Violet, which is ideal for blocking in any dark areas and for shadows. She very rarely uses fixative as she says it seems to deaden the colours and therefore loses the fresh vibrancy of pastels, instead, when the painting is finished, she prefers to place a piece of butcher’s paper over the picture and, using a hard rubber roller, pushes the pastel into the paper, making it much easier for framing as there is no loose pastel falling off onto the mat board. Fixative however can be useful to give your paper a bit more tooth, and she has discovered that some very soft pastels almost curdle when heavily sprayed, thus giving the perfect effect of lichen on rocks. She says Schmincke pastels are ideal for this method.
Carol keeps a variety of aids in her painting kit, explaining that a pack of cheap disposable latex gloves are ideal for blending, along with cotton
buds or tissues, and for really large areas an old sock makes the perfect blending aid. Having pastel pencils comes in handy for drawing fine work like reeds or small fiddly objects like cats whiskers, or even for signing your work. They are best sharpened with a blade and then the pastel portion ground down with sandpaper stuck onto a thin piece of board or even a sanding block. Too often the pastel breaks when you try to sharpen it to a point with a blade, and most of it ends up in the bin.
When she finds herself getting too bogged down with detail she takes her glasses off and is able to just see shapes and tone.
AWARDS
• 2013 Finalist: Fleurieu Landscape Prize – Water & Environment section
• 2012 Major Prize Winner: Flagstaff Hill Rotary Art Show
• 2010 Overall Winner:
Murray Bridge Rotary Art Show
• 2009 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2007 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2006 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2006 Winner: Clare Rotary Art Show, Pastel section
• 2006 Royal Adelaide Show Art Purchase, many awards including
People’s Choice
• 2005 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2005 Winner: Clare Art Show, Pastel Section
• 2005 Best in Show: Pastel Artists of S.A. Inc
• 2005 Winner: Bird Section Pastel Artists of S.A. Inc
• 2005 Winner: Seascape Section Pastel Artists of S.A. Inc
• 2005 and 2002 Merit Awards:
Port Adelaide Art Show
• 2004 Winner Overall: Jamestown Art Show
• 2004 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2003 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2002 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2001 Finalist: Heysen Landscape Art Prize
• 2001 Winner: Campbelltown
Art Show, Heritage section
• 2000 Finalist: Fleurieu Landscape Prize
• 2000 Major Prize Winner:
Victor Harbor Rotary Art Show
• 1999 Winner: Tea Tree Gully
Art Show, works on paper
EXHIBITIONS AND GALLERIES
• Greenhill Gallery, North Adelaide
• Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf
• Pepper Street, Magill
• Tomlinson’s Gallery, Adelaide
• Gallery M, Marion S.A.
• Lombard Gallery, Magill
• Artworx Gallery, Goolwa,
• Porter Street Gallery, Goolwa
• Neagle Rock Gallery, Clare
• Old Mill Gallery, Tanunda
• Adelaide Wine Centre Adelaide
Carol’s contact details:
Ph: 08 8555 5656
Email: contactme@carolcoventry.com.au
Web: www.carolcoventry.com.au
18 Richards St, Goolwa, SA, 5214. I