Carole Böggemann Peirson

from Journal of Creative Arts & Minds - Vol. 8, Fall 2023

Xuwei Zhang

I was born in the Netherlands (Holland) and moved to the United States in 2000. Being from Europe and moving to another continent gives you a different perspective on your life and culture and in my case specifically on art.

I was raised with an appreciation for art and would visit many museums with my parents and through school programs, but becoming a professional artist was a completely different ballgame. When my parents asked me what I wanted to do after high school, I asked them: “What can I do with drawing?”. We came to the mutual agreement that graphic design would be the way to go forward. I was happy I could express myself creatively (despite the commercial application) and my parents were a bit “reassured” I would likely be able to provide for myself.

After graphic design school, I was able to enroll in another college and study Marketing & Communication and during this time I had the opportunity to come over to the States and work at a local newspaper as an intern for half a year. During this time, I met my now-husband and after graduating I moved to the United States permanently in 2000.

In Holland, I had bought some oil paints to play with previously and now, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, I found a fabulous new teacher. Adamo, an older gentleman who lived nearby taught me the traditional and classic oil painting techniques (i.e. glazing on a monochromatic underpainting) and he also showed me how to become a “visual storyteller”. My paintings at that time were representational and almost considered photo realism.

After his death in 2008, I found new teachers who painted “en plein air” and these contemporaries of mine showed me a completely different approach. In the beginning I felt like a fish out of water but slowly I fell in love with this quick way of working to capture the changing light and atmosphere on location. I started seeing the world with a fresh set of eyes and became much more aware of the subtleties of nature, the weather, and the effects of light on objects.

The challenge was to capture the beauty of the moment and touch the heart of the viewer in a nostalgic way. Over the next 10 years, I tried to perfect my impressionistic landscapes technically both on location as well as in the studio and slowly started taking a lot more artistic license. It was less about the actual scene and became much more about the feeling of a certain moment in time. I became a bit frustrated by my perceived limitations of the brush as a tool.

After a few life-changing events in 2019-2020 (that affected me medically, financially, and emotionally) I overcame my fear of change and decided it was time for a pretty radical one when I traded my brush for rollers and a scraper. I wanted to learn to work with oils and Cold Wax Medium and joined the Cold Wax Academy online. Working with oils and CWM presented me with a whole new set of challenges, but after a steep learning curve it allowed me to express myself in even more interesting ways because of the versatility of the medium.

My work in oils became completely abstract and I immersed myself in the many different aspects of creating abstract works that evoke a certain feeling, solely using color, shape, line and texture. The technique lends itself to layering many, many layers on top of one another and sometimes you must cover up gorgeous areas to achieve even more interesting layers. This “history” of layers creates a piece that is super “rich” in textures, and it keeps your mind engaged when looking at the work and makes you want to explore it again and again.

This technique also confronted me with fundamental questions like, “Is it done?”, “Is it beautiful?”, “Does it have to be beautiful?”, “Is it interesting and does it engage the viewer?”, “Am I willing to lose this result in my quest for an even better end result?” and the most important question: “What do I want to achieve with this piece or is it just an exercise of being completely present in the moment and expressing myself spontaneously?”.

These were questions I had never really explored before, and they kept my mind actively engaged throughout the creation process. Recently I realized I don’t have to choose between being a landscape painter OR an abstract artist when I enjoy doing BOTH! Therefore, my latest pieces are a combination of the techniques with Cold Wax Medium and inspired by my love for nature and these abstracted landscapes feel truer to me.

Over the years, I have had many role models who have inspired my works from my early teachers (Adamo, Roger Dale Brown, Tracey Frugoli, Scott Talman Powers, John Brandon Sills and many more) to some of the big masters such as George Inness, Anton Mauve, William Turner, John Singer Sargent and Rembrandt. I did not necessarily want to paint like them, but I wanted to learn the “tools of the trade” so I could express myself properly, even though I did not know yet exactly what I wanted to “tell the world”. I needed to learn the vocabulary first and felt that the message would show itself over time.

My inspiration has evolved as well and continues to evolve, from the beautiful scenery of the Eastern Shore of Virginia peninsula to less tangible things like universal emotions and spiritual experiences.

There are contemporary artists who tug at my heartstrings like no other, such as Rebecca Crowell, Fred Cuming, Christian Hetzel, Sam Lock and Sophie Cape, but over the last few years I realized that in order to create truly authentic work and express myself in a satisfying way I have to go deep within. My daily meditation practice helps a lot and I find that it quiets the voices of doubt in my head. I still get thoughts about the imposter syndrome, but I become aware of them more quickly and can change them to more positive and productive thoughts.

A famous Dutch artist, Henk Helmantel, told me years ago to “Dare to make mistakes”. An artist is not someone who only aspires to create while paralyzed by fear of failure. An artist just puts one foot in front of the other, draws one line after the other and creates one piece after the other because we cannot NOT create! Perhaps that is the biggest lesson I have learned over the last few years as a professional artist, that one can choose what to focus on and that we are our own worst enemies if we continue to think thoughts that are not helpful along the way.

And we need to learn to celebrate our mistakes because we learn a hell of a lot more from them than from our successes. I am slowly starting to realize it is all about enjoying the artistic journey and that is not a straight line between the occasional successful pieces or shows. I hope this exciting journey I am on never ends!

Contact information:

Carole Böggemann Peirson

P.O. Box 1, Townsend, VA 23443

(757) 678-3340 (cell)

E-mail: cpeirson@earthlink.net

Web: https://www.artworkbycarole.com/

As far as I can see it, oil & CWM (Cold Wax Medium) on cradled board, 2023, 18”x18”