ARTIST'S STATEMENT - INTERIORS

I have always been primarily an abstract painter. What interests me most is the abstraction of the commonplace, abstraction that holds secrets, and can be interpreted ambiguously. I try to accomplish this in my work, no matter what my focus is.

This work evolved from a series of paintings of windows called The White Paintings, which were made in the late 1990's during a particularly harsh winter. With a limited palette and text representing the passage of time, my studio windows became a subject for 8 works on paper, which depicted the blankness of the view, the closed-in aspect of winter, and my impatience for spring.

Recently, perhaps again because of this exceptional winter, windows reappeared as subject, this time on canvas, which gave them a totally different feel. They are warmer and more colorful, more suggestive of the beauty of winter and the warmth of spring, than just the cold austere whiteness. In common with The White Paintings, one of which is represented in this exhibition, is a gestural, windswept quality in the brushwork. The hint of text is common to the both series, but in the canvasses it is purposely unclear if not illegible, as if seen through frost or ice. The text seems to melt into the image or is scored over it, lending a certain mystery to the message and I hope intriguing the viewer.

March 2008

FIREY WINDOW I
oil on canvas
30 x 40 in.
unframed
$1,700

Carol Collicutt was born and grew up in Halifax graduating from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and later from St. Thomas University with a Bachelor of Education. She received her art training at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax where she focused on drawing and painting.

She has maintained a studio at Gallery Connexion in Fredericton for 20 years. Primarily a mixed media artist, she has recently turned to photography as a vehicle for her work on memory and identity, themes which have permeated her work for many years.

She has been the recipient of many grants from the Province of New Brunswick and the NB Arts Board, including 3 Creation B grants in 2003, 2005, and 2007 and her work is represented in the New Brunswick Art Bank as well as many corporate and private collections.

She was been President of Gallery Connexion since 2004 - 2007 and her involvement with the Board of Gallery Connexion extends back some 15 years. During her tenure as President, Gallery Connexion received the TD Canada Trust and NB Foundation for the Arts Excellence award for Arts Organization of the Year for 2006.

Carol has participated in many solo and group exhibitions at such venues as Gallery Connexion, the University Club Gallery at the University of New Brunswick, the City of Saint John Galleries in Saint John, the CBC Georges Goguen Gallery in Moncton, ArtsPlace in Annapolis Royal NS, and eyelevelgallery in Halifax.

Her work was also part of the group exhibition The Exquisite Corpse curated by Tom Smart at The Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1993.

Recently her large photographs of eyes were shown at the Beaverbrook Gallery in the Marion McCain Atlantic Art Exhibition 2007, curated by Tom Lovett of Winnipeg .

She has participated in special projects such as the Artist-in-Residence program of the Fredericton Arts Alliance from 2002 to 2007, has taught many mixed media workshops and will be an instructor in mixed media at the NB College of Craft and Design in the summer of 2008 as part of the EdVentures program. She continues to work to promote artist-run culture and is currently serving on a committee to establish an association of artist-run centres in the Atlantic Provinces .

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of ARTSNB