Artist Appreciation Watercolorist Uses Talent to Create Beauty

SUBMITTED BY THE ACWORTH ARTS ALLIANCE

Local artist Elizabeth Carr has had a lifelong love of viewing and making art. From early childhood excursions to art museums with her artist mother to a second-grade teacher who encouraged her to use her crayons in unique ways to starting college as an art major, she developed her talent for creating beauty in two dimensions. And her medium of choice became watercolor.

“There’s just something special about the way the transparency of watercolor captures light,” she said. “I love its luminosity, the exquisite way the paint and water move and colors intermingle, the variety attainable in one juicy stroke.”

But Carr also enjoys using oils, pen and ink, and acrylics — whatever will get the job done. “Lately, I’ve been experimenting with watercolor on gesso-coated watercolor paper, which gives several advantages over the traditional method of applying color to watercolor paper, not the least of which is the ability to remove paint with ease in areas that I want to alter or erase,” she said. “It’s also great to be able to reuse failed paintings. You just paint over them with a couple of coats of gesso, and you’ve got a new and durable surface to paint on.”

Carr, who has studied with many nationally known painters, is a founding member of the Acworth Arts Alliance at the Art House, holds signature status in the Georgia Watercolor Society and the Watercolor Society of Alabama and is a member of the Booth Artists Guild at Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville.

Many of Carr’s works hang in private and public collections across the country. Among her most prestigious awards is the Winsor and Newton Award for “Cold Dawn on Gulf Boulevard” at the American Watercolor Society’s 144th annual International Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. This same painting was a finalist in the 27th annual American Artist magazine competition.

Travel has been a great privilege and inspiration for Carr, and her favorite excursions have been a painting trip to Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France, as well as trips to Amsterdam, Ireland, Israel, the West Coast and Alaska.

“There’s nothing like new scenery to get the creative juices flowing,” she said. “However, I still enjoy finding beauty in the everyday things surrounding me at home. The play of light can lift even the most mundane objects into something of beauty. We just need to take the time to notice them. I think that’s maybe one of my most important jobs as an artist: to draw attention to these things for those who just might not otherwise notice.”

Carr has lived in Acworth — and raised her family there — for more than 30 years. Her work can be seen at the Art House, Downtown Gallery in Cartersville and online at www.elizabethcarrfineart.com.