As this month’s featured artist at Cypress Gallery in Lompoc, local painter Claudette Carlton is showcasing a variety of her latest watercolor works in a new exhibition, hence the show’s title—It’s a Watercolor World.
Hosted by the Lompoc Valley Art Association, this exhibit includes landscapes, seascapes, animal portraits, and other pieces, all painted in the soft, delicate hues you would come to expect from watercolor paint, Carlton told the Sun. While the topics of her paintings vary, each subject is a deliberate choice, she explained.
“The subject matter has to tug at my heart and make me say, ‘I want to paint that!’ And then I try to do it,” Carlton said. “As a result, I’ve painted a wide variety of subjects that have captured my imagination.
“It’s exciting when something turns out well, and I love sharing with others,” added Carlton, who also serves the Lompoc Valley Art Association as its secretary.
It’s a Watercolor World premiered on Oct. 3 and will remain on display at Cypress Gallery through Oct. 25. Carlton will be on-site at the gallery on Oct. 10 and 17, from 1 to 4 p.m., and will also be available to discuss her artworks by appointment (email cfcarltonart@gmail.com for scheduling inquiries).
A mother of four, grandmother of 12, and great grandmother of two, Carlton currently resides in Lompoc with her husband, Bob. Both are retired teachers.
“I’ve drawn and sketched since I was 30, but it wasn’t until I retired from my 21-year teaching career at Vandenberg Middle School that I had time to follow my dream and learn to paint. That was seven years ago,” Carlton said. “Eventually, I was honored to become a member of the Cypress Gallery, which I’d visited but never dreamed I’d one day be a part of. This is my first ‘featured artist’ show.”
Among Carlton’s favorite pieces in her debut solo exhibit at the gallery are Buffalo Love, a painting of a mother buffalo nuzzling her calf, and Polly, a portrait of a parrot. Carlton’s careful shading adds realistic nuances to both paintings—a sense of texture to both the buffalos’ fur and the parrot’s green feathers.
“I’m so pleased at how both of them turned out,” said Carlton, who hopes viewers’ appreciations will mirror her own.
It’s a Watercolor World marks the third in-person show the Cypress Gallery has hosted since its reopening in August. While protocols are in place to facilitate social distancing between guests, those interested in viewing Carlton’s art can also do so online through her website, cfcarltonart.com.
During the course of the COVID-19 crisis, Carlton, like many artists, found ample time to focus on painting while quarantined at home, she said.
“I have had more time to paint during the COVID-19 restrictions,” Carlton said. “In the beginning, when quarantining was stricter, a number of my usual activities were shut down. That definitely gave me more time to paint, to get into a groove.”
Carlton used a photo reference for one of her latest watercolor paintings, Praying for America, which is also on display as part of It’s a Watercolor World. Carlton’s initial goal with the piece was to paint a pair of hands clasped in prayer, so she asked her husband to pose for a photo to paint from, Carlton said.
“It wasn’t until I was reviewing the photo that I noticed the T-shirt he was wearing had an American flag in the shape of the ‘USA’ across the chest,” said the artist, who was then inspired by the shirt’s inclusion to imply a specific prayer with the painting’s title.
“I can’t think of anything more appropriate during this crisis than prayer for our country and the world,” Carlton said.
Help make Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood’s world feel even smaller at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2020.