We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carolyn Hancock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carolyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Teaching myself to pivot from the absolute placement of features of a face to the always moving quality of water made my new collection of waterscapes my most challenging and meaningful project.

From bays and rivers to deep oceans, water has always been a part of my life. Growing up around Mobile Bay, its rivers, and the Gulf Coast taught me the feel of moving water. Scuba diving and traveling to many coastal countries showed me the infinite beauty and power of the water. Step into its edges and the sand dissolves under your feet. Push a little further in and waves gently rock. Submerge to your neck and it pulls, splashes and unexpectedly goes over your head. Stand on a dock and soft waves hypnotize and allow the mind to wander. Those are memories that stayed tucked away until the isolation of covid meant no live models for portrait sessions, so I was forced to consider a different painting subject.

Choosing a new subject that I knew and loved: how could it be anything but waterscapes! I wanted to paint it realistically, in my own vision of color and movement, so I studied how water moves. I had to learn how it pulls away from land into itself and what happens when its energy reaches a peak and collapses. Did the wave crest, create foam, spray, or just clear water. What does it look like over sand and rocks. How is its color on this particular day and time affected by the sky, sun, angle, depth, and what’s underneath. I found that water is very complicated! But get it right and those lines and colors on a flat surface come to life.

That is fulfilling to me as an artist and makes all the hours and painting decisions satisfying and, in this case, a very meaningful project!

I was invited to show my water scenes at Art Museum TX Cinco Ranch. The show continues to May 20 at Art Museum TX, 2717 Commercial Center Blvd, Katy TX in the LaCenterra Cinco Ranch shopping area.

Carolyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have painted portrait and figurative art for 20 years, putting the greatest focus on the emotion that I see in the face. Adding seascapes, I decided to interpret water in the same way—to paint it with turbulence, calm, fury, audacity, however the waves made me feel.

I paint exclusively with the spectacular beauty of soft pastels. Soft pastels are pure pigment, dry, compressed into stick form. Those two words, though, are ambiguous. “Soft” goes from a buttery cream that can go on like oil paint to super hard as in a pastel pencil. “Pastel” is definitely not the light spring colors; they range from deep eggplant and vivid fuchsia to soft skin tones, and every light and dark color imaginable.

Technique is my friend with pastels, using different finishes to get the look that a subject needs, from smooth skin to vigorously textured hair to see-through waves.

Clients want a refreshing take on contemporary realism in a custom, original portrait, and that is what I offer. Emotion and character, a one of a kind legacy for the family, whether it is a family portrait or a unique portrait of the ocean. I make it easy, adapting the commission process to fit the client, including ongoing videos of the process or waiting for a surprise at the finish.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

The most rewarding aspect is watching a person react to my painting, seeing a smile cross their face, agreement with an emotion they recognize in the painting. And then, most happy and rewarding of all, having them love a painting enough they want to take it into their own home. Enjoyment all around.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

“How long did that take” simply cannot be answered. Someone who is not an artist—in whatever media of expression—does not understand how much goes into a painting before paint touches the paper. There is time meeting with clients, imagining and discarding ideas, even destroying “finished” paintings. Thumbnails, notans, color studies, editing photos. Hours in front of the easel, lots of decision time between strokes of color. Painting is an experience in which time cannot be measured.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carolynhancock.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolynhancockportraits/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolyn.b.hancock/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynhancockart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarolynHancockArtist