Kaline Carter

Since I began painting again several years ago, I have waffled between the borders of abstraction and representational work. While I enjoy creating the hard, clean lines in my architectural paintings, I have been craving a series that is a bit more abstract. Of course, I could not argue this latest series to be purely abstract as it is inspired and derived from fashion. Although my process remains largely the same and utilizes hard edges, matte vinyl paints paired with acrylics, and big shapes & fields of color, I have challenged myself to add more layers to my process. In this new series, you will also see more intricate pattern like plaids and stripes.

A little more than a year ago, I began researching fashion and collecting materials like fashion magazines, books, and vintage fabric samples.

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I found the plaids and stripe patterns to be the most challenging. I got hooked on dissecting their seemingly complex designs. Through the pro- cess, I also came away with some ap- preciation for stripe patterns and how a simple change to the rhythm or color palette can manipulate its visual ap- peal so quickly.

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While I have no plans to discon- tinue working on my architecture series, I like the idea that I can continue to cross back and forth over the line of abstraction. This series has allowed me to explore and push myself further. This feels like a natural progression from where I began and I feel comfort- able painting both. Looking at work in this series, I can feel the influence of my favorite artist: Agnes Martin; and it feels good to be circling back to my starting point.

Biography:

After a brief stint at Parsons School of Design in the early 1990s, Kaline Carter found himself in a creative dry spell for about two decades. Around 2017, he began looking at everyday scenes differently—particularly glimpses of architecture, aerial views of cities and farmland, and shapes found in nature–and soon he picked up a sketchbook. He was fascinated with the vast universe of color combinations that can be applied to patterns and his sketchbook was filling up. In early 2019, he started researching painting techniques with acrylic on canvas and found many ways to paint hard-edge geometric paintings. He ran into more influential artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Frederick Hammersley, Carmen Herrera, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, and Barnett Newman. Carter considers them to be his teachers, and has taken a bit from each of their practices. By paring down observations of the world around him, and then applying the techniques he’s learned while studying his favorite artists, Carter has found a style he is completely comfortable working in.

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https://www.kalinecarter.com/

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