Never Believed In Angels Anyway

 

 "Never Believed In Angels Anyway"

Acrylic on canvas

24"x36"

This was painted entirely with my hands/fingers (no brushes!) in a middle-of-the-night burst of inspiration. Over the past few months several people close to me have lost people close to them and I'd been thinking a lot about the relationship between legacy, mortality, and metamorphosis. There are actual, literal tears mixed with the paint in this piece.

Original fine art by Vancouver, Washington based artist Jamie Lutz Carroll. Buy acrylic paintings, ink and gouache illustrations, limited edition archival prints, and custom and commissioned artwork.

Expressionism Experiment

I've been working through a self-guided course in Expressive Drawing. This is basically glorified scribbling which, easy as it sounds, can be rather difficult. Especially for a control freak like me. But that's exactly why I've been doing it: to shed a bit of my control-freakishness and grow as a person and artist. As soon as I started doing the drawings, I knew I wanted to do some expressive painting.


I got together with a friend who mixes dubstep in his garage (huge shop, really) to do this experiment because it had the right kind of atmosphere for me to get in the expressive zone: dark, loud music, lots of space, able to get messy... All the things my regular painting space isn't. Here's what came out of that night:

"Sanctuary"

Acrylic on canvas, 48"x36"

"Shadows And Light"

Acrylic on fabric, 30"x30" (appx)

I always listen to music when I paint, but it was so different being there. There was no detachment; the music was as much a part of what I was doing as the paint, or the oxygen I was breathing for that matter. I swear I could have filled eight canvases with the creative energy I was feeling in that environment. Which just means I'll have to do it again sometime - and bring more canvases!

Original fine art by Vancouver, Washington based artist Jamie Lutz Carroll. Buy acrylic paintings, ink and gouache illustrations, limited edition archival prints, and custom and commissioned artwork.

Faces 1 - 2 - 3

"Faces 1 - 2 - 3"

India ink on cold press paper

4"x4" each

Original fine art by Vancouver, Washington based artist Jamie Lutz Carroll. Buy acrylic paintings, ink and gouache illustrations, limited edition archival prints, and custom and commissioned artwork.

Abstract Self Portrait #1

Abstract Self Portrait #1

8x10, acrylic on canvas board

I spent last week teaching an "Art Exploration" summer camp to a group of ten kids aged 8-16. I had planned to do a still life for our painting segment but, being a hater of still lifes, I decided at the last minute to do abstract self portraits instead. So much more fun! I had never actually done one, however, so my teaching demo was also my learning project. I ended up with this which I actually kind of like! And it was FUN! Thinking I might do a little series of abstract portraits now and see what comes out of it...

Original fine art by Vancouver, Washington based artist Jamie Lutz Carroll. Buy acrylic paintings, ink and gouache illustrations, limited edition archival prints, and custom and commissioned artwork.

Dottie

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 Sometimes I take myself far too seriously. And sometimes I don't.

Convergence

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 "Convergence" Behind the tidiness of converging lines there is a freeform textural element; the grid of lines represent our interactions within society while the swirling element underneath represents the chaos and turmoil that lurks just beneath the surface in all of us.

Or, ya know, something like that...

One of these days I'll be comfortable talking about my abstracts and won't sound like such a dork when I try to explain them. For now, you get this!

Manteca

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 "Manteca" When I paint abstracts I go in with no preconceived ideas of the outcome: not the shape, the palette, the story, nothing. It is simply to satisfy a primal need within my being to paint. Sometimes when I'm done I can see certain emotions or thoughts worked out on the canvas, and sometimes I just see colors and shapes that are pleasing to me. It's interesting to see how the image changes when turned this way or that and determining which way is "UP". When I was done with this one it seemed undeniably landscape-like - even though I typically can't stand landscape paintings. I decided to give it the name of an actual place and went with the first name I came across, thanks to a bottle of Gnarly Head Merlot made in Manteca, CA. And it was deee-licious!

Simple Step

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 "Simple Step" This is another bit o' fun with simplifying the human figure. This was done on untreated wood with very thinned paints applied in layers to really allow the wood grain to come through. 

Question Of Taste

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"Question Of Taste" I've been experimenting with different ways of simplifying the human figure. This one was done on top of a different experiment in creating textural layered backgrounds. Once I was done experimenting, I thought it looked pretty damn decent as one finished piece. So shhhhh... I won't tell anyone this was an accident if you don't.

Catwalk

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Don't just stand there, let's get to it. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it. Vogue!

This was inspired by fashion illustrations. I'm not in to "fashion" much at all. Kinda just wear what I want to wear and don't follow trends. For the most part I think there have been very few attractive advancements to fashion since the early 60s. That being said, I really enjoy fashion illustrations - yes, even the modern stuff! They're so heavily stylized and often bear little resemblance to the finished product, but I think they're probably a truer representation of what the designer really wants to create.

Sunset On The Lake

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 "Sunset On The Lake" Good things come from oddly sized canvases found in basements...

Enigma

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 "Enigma" Until now I haven't really posted any of my abstracts; mostly because I don't really know what to say about them! In many ways these are the most personal paintings I do. I am compelled to paint, need to do it in the same way I need to eat or breathe. Abstracts come out as a natural by-product of life. They come from some deep place in my soul that I can't honestly say I even understand. So I'm letting these out a little now thinking perhaps I can understand them and where they come from.