Grounding

oil on hardwood panel

40 x 30 inches

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

"I used to design things. Custom rugs mostly. Also mirrors, lamps, plates, furniture, and even scarves. The years spent in the high end home furnishings market trained my eye and taught me much about the detail and discipline required to develop design strong enough to translate through the many phases of development from sketch to final manufactured product.

But now I paint. My designer eye responds to line, form, and certainly color. I look for the color and structure hiding beneath the surface of things. I push the world I see into an abstracted, but recognizable play of color, texture and geometry - afresh, fun, modern take on the classic genre of landscape painting. I plan a little, play a lot, listen to music and let my instincts lead the way. This is about joy - in both the visual experience, and the creative process as it unfolds.

As much fun as it is to loosen up and play with paint, the designer in me is alive and well. I'm attracted to clean composition, color, pattern and texture. Afteryears of the controlled specification required for production of custom rugs and other home furnishings products, I enjoy the immediacy of paint on my brush, color at my fingertips, the smell, the feel, and the constant surprises that lead the way. Painting, for me, is a rewarding form of down and dirty magic.

I'm a native Richmonder. A VCU Arts alumnus. The CEO of the former Sarah Gayle Carter Design Studio. Living and working now in Lexington, Virginia, surrounded and endlessly inspired by these gorgeous, layered fields and old blue mountains. Life is good."