Former Firnew Artist: Carol Weiss

What most inspires me to paint is the exhilaration I feel when I see a scene in the natural world that is a beautiful combination of reflected light and cast shadows. Both the Luminist style of landscape painting in the 1800s and the contemporary plein air painting movement had a lot of influence on my development as a painter. I love the spontaneity of plein air painting and in the earlier years of my painting, I did quite a bit of that – mostly in oil, but occasionally water color. Although I don’t do much plein air anymore, years of painting outdoors on location taught me about color and value and perspective. Most of my paintings are landscapes, but I have done the occasional portrait and still life. I primarily work in studio now, using my own photographs for reference but often also as a point of departure to alter the scene to my own inventions.

Carol’s tintype portrait courtesy of John Berry.