About Artist

Kathy Carney Painting

I have always been fascinated by art and remember looking at drawing by older students posted in the school hallways. As a teenager I went to the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. It was a wonderful, vibrant school and exposure to the art programs greatly influenced me. I decided during that time that the only meaningful way of living my life was to become an artist. My family moved out west to Tucson, Arizona. I went to the University of Arizona and received a degree in fine arts, later working for the Tucson Museum of Art as an art instructor. However, I missed city life and decided I wanted to move to San Francisco. I discovered a group of other artists in the city though a poster for a drawing group. All of us were working at odd jobs, usually in some form of construction. We formed a community of artists and often put on group art shows. I met my husband Dave through this group and we are still together after 45 years. Living in the city was a wonderful and difficult growing experience and energized my art. My painting of the Costume Party was a summation of this episode in my life.

Dave and I decided to move north to the countryside of Santa Rosa once we had children. We built our house ourselves and kept the largest area as a studio. Working on my paintings can be isolating, but raising our daughter and son here connected me much more to my community. When I wasn't painting I started volunteering in the schools as an art teacher. I did this for many years, sometimes providing materials myself. We created self-portraits and mural projects.

I also started painting landscapes when I moved to Sonoma County. Our house is in the hills with distant views of the mountains. I have spent years learning about light, color and creating the effect of far distance. I have always loved Asian art, perhaps because I was born in Japan. I did a series of paintings of the eastern view from our balcony which are reminiscent of Chinese scrolls.

My art has been described as surreal realism. My paintings are realistic in that they are a study of the effect of light and structure in landscapes or the figure. They follow the logic of realistic art, but there is always a dreamlike quality to the places and events. There is a balance between an external realism and an internal or felt process. My art moves back and forth between reality and a dream when it is successful. It is sometimes difficult to turn off our intellect and attain a state of outer tranquility and inner stability. At moments of extraordinary clarity, when we are not distracted, one's perceptions become part of one's self. I am always striving for this "passage of felt life".

A figure drawing group met in my Santa Rosa studio for over 10 years and as a result I have been drawing as much as I paint. Sometimes the model will assume a pose which remind me of an archetypal figure. Sometimes I turn these poses into large, finished drawings. There is usually an implied narrative which results in the process. I have also been drawing and painting portraits by commission. Drawing on a regular basis is now essential to my art.

We decided to move back to Tucson in 2018 after experiencing a major fire in our area. Dave and I remodeled an older desert home near the Sweetwater trailhead in Tucson. We often hike there and I’ve been learning how to paint the Sonoran desert. We are on another adventure!

 

Education

Solo Shows

Group Exhibits

Teaching