Carrie Crane

"As I paint, I find I am pulled more toward the surreal and imaginary, and less toward representing the world as we actually see it. I find there is humor, wonder, and hope in our natural world--and those things are more likely to rise to the surface the less I try to paint what is obvious to the eye."

Carrie Crane's love of the landscape and the natural environment are so much a part of her that she is hardly aware of them most of the time. Having grown up on a farm and studied the natural sciences in college, it's no surprise that her love for the landscape and environment runs deep. And it comes out clearly in her art. She is inspired by the age and complexity of the world and the interrelationships between elements in the landscape. She thinks of these relationships in both a compositional sense (how the shapes and colors interact) as well as in a natural sense (how the elements might depend on one another for their sustenance and survival).

As a surrealist, Carrie allows her paintings to evolve. She begins by putting something onto the blank surface that can eventually be composed into a picture. Sometimes she works entirely from her imagination. Sometimes she is inspired by an actual site--a farm, for instance--and she will take the essence of the view, if not the exact details, and create a painting.

The first concrete element in most of her compositions is a horizon line. From there, anything can happen. Colors change, shapes are embellished, and texture is added until each element in the painting possesses individual depth and character and the real world is left behind.