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Carolyn Blaylock
Carolyn Blaylock’s effervescence for life clearly comes across in her abstract Dreamscape paintings. Full of life and resplendent color, she takes you on an imaginative stroll with nature’s shapes and sounds.
“I want to make every color memorable, every brushstroke compelling. My goal is to connect with the viewer’s soul through Dreamscapes that hint of water, flora, fauna, and light. The paintings express my enthusiasm for life, and the wonder I find in creation, rather than an intentional description of nature. I paint loosely and energetically like a ballerina with paint. I don’t start with an agenda; instead I move freely to the dance of the painting finding structure and story, purpose and play, and rhythm and balance.”
Using large brushes and palette knives, Carolyn creates colors that sing and soar across her canvas. Some artworks play soft and gentle color notes, evoking a calm and peace. Others modulate bold and bright color notes, expressing vivacity and joie de vivre. Classical string music, a love since childhood, fills her sunroom studio and conducts the rhythm of her hand and brush. Carolyn flourishes on a large canvas, where she works in an additive and subtractive approach, layering paint and scraping areas back with tools to previous layers.
The result is a memorable piece of art that engages the eye and captivates the heart. Carolyn’s joyful art is simply contagious.
Carolyn’s lifelong love of color and nature began in pre-school with boxes of crayons and jars of gooey finger paints. Blessed with parents and teachers who encouraged her artistic curiosity, she experimented and filled walls with art and winning ribbons.
Her passion for painting compelled her onward to the University of Georgia where she majored in advertising design and minored in studio painting. After graduating, she spent a few years in the advertising arena before returning full time to her love of painting. She immersed herself in studying the works of the American and California impressionists, and especially the color work of Wolf Kahn. Like them, Carolyn concentrated on seeing and conveying the effects of color and light on forms.
Her inspiration remained steady: the Creator, color, nature and their connection to the human spirit. Accolades and awards have followed her from coast to coast, but what she finds most rewarding is seeing the light and life on faces when they view her artworks.
Her paintings hang in many private and corporate collections including Oprah Winfrey, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Baptist Hospital, a North Carolina Congressman, the National Cathedral, and OtterBox. Forty-six of Carolyn's paintings were recently installed at the Cancer Center at Wake Forest Baptist Center.
She has had fifteen solo shows in the last ten years. She also jurors exhibitions and teaches workshops here and there and everywhere, finding great joy encouraging others to bring forth their own artistic voice.
Carolyn is a juried member of The Oil Painters of American, and The American Impressionist Society. Her works have been published in Art Collector, Western Art Collector, Our State Magazine, The Raleigh Observer, Winston Salem Magazine, and Wilmington Magazine.
Carolyn and her husband, CEF (Chief Executive Farmer) make their home in Lake Janette, Greensboro, North Carolina, with the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, and six children living all in between. She and her husband travel often to capture the personality of colorful places, especially France, and particularly Monet’s garden in Giverny.
Whether in her bright sunroom studio or in the wide open air of the outdoors, she’ll be wearing her signature pearls, armed with a paintbrush in one hand and palette knife in the other, both loaded with color and ready to spread joy.