Mary Jo Carew
Mary Jo Carew works with oil on canvas. Her style is a mixture of realism and impressionism. Her work focuses on both plein air and studio landscapes and on figurative work within the natural environment. Her art freeze-frames brief moments in time, capturing them through the dramatic contrasts of light and shadow. She wants her viewer to share the emotion that she herself felt looking at the beauty of the world around her. It might be a blood red sunset turning the buildings of NYC all a glow, or the froth of a wave catching the morning sun in SOCAL, or the striking color of the fall leaves as they tumble along a bike path in Maine.
Whether painting landscape or figure, she employs several stages in producing a finished painting: She first draws several small sketches to find a pleasing composition. Then she uses paint to draw the image on canvas. After that, she paints in the large shapes of dark and light, and continues to refine the shapes bringing in more and more detail until the painting feels complete. She paints what the image dictates. Sometimes the painting is more impressionistic, sometimes more photographic, but always there are areas of 'lost' and 'found' brushstrokes, which move the eye around the canvas. She is only satisfied when each part of the painting has a beauty in and of itself.
Mary Jo feels truly fortunate to be able to tuck herself up in her barn/studio or stand at her easel by a mountain stream creating paintings every day.
Mary Jo Carew is represented by The Gallery at Somes Sound, Mount Desert Island, Maine.
Artwork
