About the Artist
Carolyn Stout Sobel is an artist who has lived in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, for over 25 years. Originally a hand papermaker and sketcher, she has moved into mixed media on paper. Carolyn is a mother of two adult children and, after a long career as a school counselor, is devoting time solely to making art.
I want to capture something in my work that is not obvious, something deeper; a sense of wonder. I create my paintings through keen observation of light, texture, contour, form, and conversely, the formless.
I integrate polarities into the picture, with the goal of creating harmony and balance. Tension from opposites creates wholeness like a perfect arch. I use all my senses to observe these polarities; life and decay, ugliness and beauty, positive and negative spaces, light and its absence. I listen to the sound of silence and noise, both pleasant and harsh; then touch the objects or plant life to feel for texture, wet or dry. At the intersection of all this, something exciting emerges, something that includes everything.
Working back in the studio I create paintings in layers using mixed media: acrylics, glazes, watercolor, stains, gesso and graphite. The snapshots in my memory, along with my sketches and photos, inform my compositions. Loose gestural marks form the initial structure. My aim is to connect with the viewer, to reveal something that resonates beyond the obvious, revealing my experience of harmony; an image that holds opposites, messiness and perfection in balance.
