Meet Carolyn Hancock

We were lucky to catch up with Carolyn Hancock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Carolyn, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Coming from a family of four older brothers who left home early and didn’t complete their schooling, I wanted to be different. And I loved school, loved learning, loved being tops in the class. My drawings from art classes? Surely not the best, but they tucked into a box and I still have them.

In 1970 I happened on a pastel portrait class at a Chattanooga TN YMCA. It rekindled my art memories and I loved it. But moving to Florida, with no encouragement to pursue art, my art supplies went to the closet.

In 1994 I had the chance to do or learn anything I wanted. And I wanted something to occupy my time when we moved out of the country. A flippant comment of “I can paint that” from a few years earlier started circling my thoughts and brought back memories until it became my goal. In the two years living in Los Angeles, I took every art class I could find, from beginning drawing to life drawing. So that was settled: I wanted to paint portraits in pastel.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I think of the movement of the ocean as a ballet dancer, with her high leaps, exaggerated poses, and the ability to portray emotion without words. The ocean energy explodes in incredible high waves; it twists and crashes; it shows moods from quiet calm to danger. I am in awe when I see an ocean wave filmed in slow motion; its beauty and color still me. I am mesmerized and want to capture those fleeting moments in paint so that more people can see them.

My goal is to understand ocean movement well enough to create paintings without photographic reference, especially in those conditions where two waves meet each other with such violent force that the resulting wave is one of a kind. Can I take wave paintings to a new level? This is what I am most excited about at this time in my art learning adventure.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Curiosity has to be by far the most important asset. Without that, the ability to learn more, to do more, won’t exist. An artist would simply be stuck in a pattern of doing the same thing. Asking “what if” is maybe the best way to change and grow.

I know that travel had a huge impact on my art. The kindness of different people greatly influenced the portrait side of my art career, trying to paint their candid moments. Seeing people of different cultures, their native clothing, their surroundings. The colors of different cultures and countries: blues and turquoise of mosaic domes, vivid colors of spices, and contrasts of black and neutrals in the middle east; the orangey ochres of Africa; the blues of Japanese kimono and ceramic ware.

Perseverance holds equal status in being an artist. The times I opted out of a train trip to Tokyo because I was painting is probably my first reminder of staying the course. Searching for a teacher or mentor who painted the way I wanted or said the things I needed to hear. Letting the failed paintings be a teacher. And the stick-to-it when the inevitable “not accepted” notice comes from a coveted juried exhibition.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

The big obstacle is not having my own video or photography of the ocean. Professional photography is copyrighted; workshops and travel to high wave areas is expensive. But most calls of entry in juried shows require that any reference photo must be a photo taken by the artist.

How can I paint what I cannot see? This is why I am teaching myself the possibilities of ocean energy. For 20 years I focused on painting the human face, where placement of features must be exact. Although an ocean crest or wave does not have to be exactly like it really moved, the laws of believable movement still must be followed.

Although I have several paintings where I incorporated the sea into a figurative piece, I am only three paintings into feeling my way through ocean energy. But imagine the possibilities! I make up the colors and envision the wave action!

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