Meet Carollyne Sinclaire

Oh my gosh, Carollyne Sinclaire is one of my favourite people. Over the years, I’ve witnessed her beautiful paintings. I’m so pleased to introduce you to her. 

One thing I admire about Carollyne is her desire to learn. She often takes classes from renowned artists, always improving her skills. When I spoke to her, she was in the process of learning from Ian Roberts, "Mastering Composition.” In the class, he has been emphasizing the focal point, which is where the vertical and horizontal meet. He's not focused on any grid points or anything like the traditional methods of composing an image. What he is most interested in is focusing on creating a structure underneath the main image that everything goes on top of. "We are so focused on the things that are visible—the colour, the brushwork, the detail—but underneath there is another layer, which is the value mass and the structure, all the cropping and framing that we do. He then works you into the design."

Each course is three months long. It's immersive. It's regular practice on specific aspects of creating an amazing painting. Over and over again, I find myself looking for junctions between the horizontal and vertical planes.

Ciel- As two-dimensional artists, we certainly have limitations due to the fact that we are working in two dimensions. The question is always: how do we make this two-dimensional surface interesting? It's only by using those tools of composition, colour, and value scale that we are able to draw the viewer in. It's our point of view. What are we most drawn to, and how do we want to speak that language?

Carollyne- Exactly. I keep finding the same things. It's almost like love at first sight. I'm mesmerized. I find myself afterwards questioning, What is it about these things that I'm attracted to? It's not really the subject matter at all; it is how the light and the shadow work together. Strong contrasts always pull me in. I'm successful with the paintings that capture those qualities.

Ciel- I think that is the key. When you are physically moved by it, your emotions are connected—your excitement, intuition, and curiosity. All these qualities come through in the painting.

Carollyne- that also helps you sustain your time at the canvas. You have these little drops of enthusiasm; you want to go back because you are drawn to the initial quality. I did a class with Dennis Perrin years ago, and one of the key things I took from my time with him was to sit down and make some notes about what drew you to that idea in the first place. Write it down thoroughly, and if you can synthesize it into a short statement and attach that to your easel, referring to it as you paint, it will inform what you create. Before you sit down and paint each day, revisit those thoughts. You might have to pull out the notebook to elaborate on those thoughts, and then you'll be back there again. Those are the things that you want the viewer to see in your painting. 

​Ciel- You want to use that description when you start to market that painting, because it invites the viewer into that moment with you. That is a really good point. I'm going to use that.

Carollyne- I've shared that with a few other artists who said, "I'm going to write that down right away; I'm going to use that. We want to be held in the throws of that initial glimpse. don't we?

Ciel- we do, and I think we create our best work when we are inspired in that liminal space of not knowing how to articulate this feeling. This subject has me curious, but how do I actually make that into a tangible thing? I think sometimes we can get off track because we think further down the link of completion, or some other thing, and we get out of the space of creative curiosity. It sort of taints the process.

Carollyne- I agree. I think that it's a willingness to do the problem solving as we go. I like the problem solving, so I don't mind. I did a workshop with Alan Wylie, from Langley, a wonderful guy. He said, "You guys, you just want to paint, you don't want to practice." You have to practice.

Ciel- I think that practice is important. I've been reading a lot about Georgia O'Keeffe. She was a very private person. People would show up at her gate and want a private visit with her. She would open the door and say, You came to see me. Well, now you have seen my front, and you are going to see my back. And then she would close the door on them and walk away. Her point was, if you want to be an artist, go home and do the work. Why are you showing up on my doorstep? No one is going to give you the magic recipe.  You have to go and do the work.

Carollyne- Sometimes you'll hear someone say, "You are so talented." Well, I don't think so. I think my greatest quality is perseverance and my willingness to try. I spend a lot of time doing analysis. I'll look online to see how other artists, especially masters, have solved a certain problem.

​Ciel- Who are the masters that you are inspired by and that you go to when you are researching problem-solving skills?

Carollyne- Caravaggio's work, Sorolla, John Singer Sargent, Gerry Thompson Kisselback, and yourself if it's flowers. I like the little paintings of Carol Marine is one of my favourites in that area. I'll pull a book off the shelf and maybe go online. I'll just study it for awhile, make a few notes, and then I'll give it a try. The thing about talent is that I like what Whistler said: "Talent is the ability to do hard work in a consistently constructive way over a long period of time." It's consistency and constructive direction over time. I have my duds. They get tucked away. Maybe sanded down and painted over, or maybe I'll have some sort of insight and I can go back and repair them. Talent, I don't think, is necessarily a God-given thing.

Ciel- I think it's very much like the idea of the famous overnight sensation, but there are decades of work to get to that point. People only see that one thing you hang on the wall, but I've also worked for 25 years to perfect this talent. I think there is a perception thing that artists have, yourself included; we have the ability to understand shape and how shapes orient to each other within a frame. Add in our colour sensitivity, and there is magic in how we see things. Yes, these skills are practiced, but I think we have an inherent ability to be sensitive to those things.

If you look at John Singer Sargent, how does that help you solve the quandary in your own mind by looking at the old master work?

Carollyne- The problem that I'm having was solved before in different ways. I will think of who did that and do my search for them. With Sargent, it's the folds in the cloth.  I may not emulate it, but I learn something from it by looking at how he deals with fabric and how he shifts colours and shadows/light with very simple, repeated brushstrokes of similar but different hues.

John Singer Sargent

Ciel- It gives you enough information to then go back to your own work and try that.

Carollyne- It is a glimmer of light, you know. That's all you really want. I think one of the things that people say is, "Oh, your work has really improved." Well, of course it has; I've studied, and I've taken classes, which are mostly very fruitful.  Sometimes it's not. I think the thing I've most improved at is seeing things and noticing things. You know if it might be the bend of the leaf and how the value shifts. It might be how the light on a petal radically shifts its hue. The colour, all the colours in shadows. I go for a walk in the neighbourhood, and I don't take headphones; I just walk along, noticing things. I love to watch the sunflowers that have been planted along the river walk here, and I love to watch them at all stages. There is a sunflower still standing from last summer, and it's still standing. It looks like it has rebar holding it up. Maybe I'll do a series on all the stages of the sunflower.

Ciel- Are there any seeds still in the head?

Carollyne- It's full of seeds.

Ciel- What are you currently inspired by? What are you curious about? Obviously,  the drawing course that you are taking.

Carollyne- Right now, it's taking up a great deal of my time. I got a little bit behind because I was getting paintings completed for shows and an art walk that is coming up. These little drawings are taking 2-3 hours of my time, and I want to take my time and learn from each one. But when I come out of that, I have a list of things that I want to paint. I don't like talking about what I want to paint. I don't want to say that it jinks it; it's just that I like to be very fluid in what I paint next. If I get the thunderbolt of inspiration, I want to go to that while I'm in the ether. 

Ciel- I made a mistake. Well, I don't know if that's how I'm going to phrase it. Last year I painted for 7 different shows, which meant I had to do a lot of preplanning, figure out my subject and my canvas size, and get down to work to meet the deadlines to submit and ship. And I realized that the lightning bolt of inspiration you are referring to completely got set aside because I was planning for the summer. This year, that system of planning didn't work. It sort of worked; I reached all my goals, but this year I need a different way to follow my inspiration with a bit more looseness versus being so scheduled. I totally understand that idea of "I want to keep my ideas close until I get the lighting bold, or until I work with it enough so I'm not prematurely presenting something that I'm curious about. I love this idea.

I've been listening to a lot of Rick Rubin's work. The Creative Act.​

Carollyne- I love that book; it's like my art bible.

Ciel- Me too. I love the idea that Rick talks about that art is about the act of creating; it's not about the finish line. It's about being present for every little thing that you feel inspired to create." The goal of art isn't to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are and how we see the world." "Artists allow us to see what we are unable to see but somehow already know. It may be a view of the world singularly different from our own, or one so close that it seems miraculous. In either case, the artist's perception reminds us of who we are and who we can be." I love it. Then he talks about the difference between a point of view and a point. A point of view is a perspective of the conscious and unconscious through which the work emerges. The way we see things is the way through. It's really good. 

Carollyne- Mine is riddled with post-it notes. I've got my own reflections, but I just really feel like he talks to us about the spirit of art, and I love that because those are thoughts one might have thinking about art, thinking about one's own art, or standing at the easel. It's very encouraging.

Ciel- Would you agree that this art journey really is about developing that spiritual connection with ourselves? You know, with each challenge, whether it be colour theory, composition, or technique, we are forced to confront our own selves and where we are in relation to these different tools that we can pull out and use for our art. I find it just fascinating. 

I was down at the beach, and I was starting to put some marks down for this little painting that I did. The internal voice was saying, "You have totally messed this up; this is not working; you are not good at this; just pack your stuff up and go home; just forget it." Where does that voice come from? Because who cares? I'm just putting colour on a canvas. Who cares. It's just a practice. It's just something to try. It's something to fool around with. Our brain reverts to what we are accustomed to. I'm really curious about changing that default, that we have something more to access than just that.

Carollyne- I would like to be a lot kinder to myself when I do these things.  When we paint in public, which I will be doing this weekend for about two hours, it's a very vulnerable act, but I like it too. It's harder to paint in front of people when you are just starting a canvas than to finish a canvas when it's already looking good. At first glance, it might not look good at all. It's that initial block that may not look like your subject at all, but you want those colours to come through. A lot of people want to paint. There was a fellow at Art in the Park last summer, and he was looking at my display, fixating on a painting of donuts. I did a series of donut paintings. It was dazzling to see all the donuts under the lights and the glossy icing, and I took a donut home, and that began the series. I usually paint things in a little series. He was focused on this maple-glazed donut, and I had painted it with an old master painting technique. He was fascinated by the crinkle on the top. He told me, “I'm going to retire soon, and I really want to get back to painting. That is the way I want to paint." He must have stood there for an hour, looking at it. I thought about how much yearning there is in people to do that art and how long it takes them to allow themselves to do it.

My mother always said I came down the birth canal holding on to a Crayola. My dad would bring me home papers from work—you know, the end of the roll from printing news papers—and I would draw on them and paint and colour. It was like the Bayeux Tapestry; it went on and on and on. And then in my teens, actually in elementary school, I had a teacher who specialized in art, he suggested to my mother that I take classes at the art gallery, which was then on Georgia Street. They had art classes for kids on Saturday, and Jack Shadbolt would come into the studio. Then, in my teen years, I did Saturday classes at the old Vancouver School of Art, which preceded Emily Carr. Then I went on and did night school classes in drawing, but somehow I didn't allow myself to fully blossom over those years. I think so much about how my life would have been enhanced and more relaxed if I allowed myself an hour or so, four nights a week, to just do art. It would have been as important as exercise, planning for the next day, or reporting on work. I think it's something essential to a lot of people. They need to permit themselves to do it.

Ciel- I think there are a lot of barriers—time barriers, personal barriers, and financial barriers—that take precedent.

Carollyne- Even space barriers. We had a larger house; we decided in the end that we wouldn't have quests anymore, and I had been dabbling in art again, and I thought I could take over that space. I asked my husband for permission, and he was all for it. Once I got a space where I could just leave things and come back the next day, not putting everything away each time was liberating. When people say, What are you doing with yourself? It took a couple of years to blurt out that I'm an artist. Making it real, you know.

Ciel- Why do you think there is a hesitancy to claim that title of artist?

Carollyne- Oh, I think that is the check-and-compare thing. Am I good enough to say that? Am I qualified?

Ciel- I think there is a hesitation where people have judgments around artists.

Carollyne- Oh yeah, there is a whole package of attitudes around artists.

Ciel- Which I think you are hesitant because you are up again with all those preconceived ideas about what artists are in the world.
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In Stiches

Carollyne- It's pretty easy to get tagged as something or other. I did a series of shoes; they were like portraits of people. From baby shoes to toddlers to Mary Janes and high heels, I showed them at a summer show in a small town. There were a number of elderly ladies walking behind me. I could hear them talking, "I think that is the shoe painter." It wasn't something I wanted to get famous for or locked into. But it's just what people do. They want to define you as an artist. 

Ciel- I find that idea about shoes, where we have come from the toddler to the adult; it's also a snap shot of someone's life experience. We have walked this ground in these shoes.

Carollyne- I actually got commissions from it.

Ciel- I think about your donut series and wonder if you have to keep going back to Tim Horton's to get more donuts. Did you become a regular?

Carollyne- I think if I had become a regular, I would have become desensitized to the beautiful, glistening icing.

Ciel- What are you currently inspired by? What's the subject? Is there any particular subject that you are exploring?

Carollyne- I have blossoms on my mind. 
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Ciel- You do incredible things. I still remember your peaches hanging in the tree with the sunshine streaming through. You painted it as if you were underneath a branch shaded from the hot sun. 
Carollyne- enthralled with moving to the Okanagan, to be in a peach orchard, to hear the buzz of wasps and the quiet, and to smell the peaches as they approached readiness. It's all the senses at play.

Ciel- I grew up on an apple orchard. I grew up stealing the apricots, the cherries, the pears, and the different varieties of apples from the neighbouring orchards because we were all joined at the back with no fences in between.  As I walked through as a kid going to school or to a friend, I would cut through the orchard... Oh, look, cherries! I'd grab a handful and some fresh fruit.

Carollyne- You know, I like to branch out too. I’m thinking I should do more landscapes. I enjoyed the last landscape I did. The little bridge. I’ll be showing it this weekend for the first time to see how people respond to it. I’ll be showing it at Picture This Gallery in Penticton. They have just doubled the size of the gallery, and it has enormous windows at the front, so it’s filled with light. It shows off the paintings really well. 

Ciel- You say that you have been an artist all your life, and there was a period in your life when you weren’t practicing, and you regret or think about what it would have been like if you were practicing all those years. I’m curious about the picking up of your skills; was there a tentativeness with your exploration, or was it gangbuster “I’m getting out the art supplies?”

Carollyne- This is typically me. About a year before I retired, I made a list of things that I wanted to do in retirement. Things for my health, things for my spirit, things for my creativity—believe it or not, I was a teacher. It can be an extremely creative job. I love doing it. “What is going to replace this for me?” I wrote for a while; there were things I wanted to write. Memoir stories and family stories I wanted to write, as much to explain things to myself as to forgive things. The next one on the list was to practice drawing and painting.

​I was then living in Osoyoos, and for me to go to a class, there wasn’t anyone there to teach it. I would have to travel. Mind you, it was the birth of lots of online teaching. That’s how I began. I still love online classes because I can stop and go and do them whenever I want to. I loved the work of Patti Mollica.  She is from Nayak, NY. She was a commercial illustrator and graphic designer.  She decided to leave that behind because she found it very constraining and chose instead to become an artist. She gave classes, and one class was to be held in Carmel, and I signed up for it. We decided we would make a holiday out of it. We will go down the coast and stop in some nice places. The further south I got, the more anxious I got. Because I began thinking I shouldn’t have signed up for this class, I’m not qualified for it. Can I pull out now? I came with great trepidation. 

The night before, she gave an introductory session, and spouses could come. I thought this was really interesting. The next day, I was probably quivering along with a number of other students. By noon, I felt, Yes, I can do this. It’s terrible to go through that. Now I just say: I accept myself the way I am. 
Ciel- that totally articulated that growth moment. I think many people who want to become artists can’t get over the trepidation, wobbly knees, and “I’m in the wrong place” thoughts. They don’t quite know how to manage that and decide to revisit it later. It might be decades before they get the courage to go back. That really is the hero's journey: to step into the room and quickly say, “I can actually do this.” 

Carollyne- I remember that a lot when I’m facing something at the easel, going to a workshop, or attending something online. Just be kind to yourself. You wouldn’t treat other people this way. 
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Ciel- I recently took a course from an artist in New York, Devon Rodrigues. In his own art practice, he is on the subway, platform, or streets of New York, approaching complete strangers and asking if he can draw their portrait. "Hey, I really like your look. Do you have a minute? Could I draw your portrait?” He is one of the most followed artists on Instagram, with 8 million+ followers. He has a wonderful spirit of kindness and generosity. His brand campaign is Be Happy. Spreading joy. 

Devon Rodriguez

Source photo from Devon

My drawing

My experience with drawing hasn’t been that successful in terms of undermining my ability and humiliating me in front of the class.  I thought, “You know what? I’m ready to challenge this idea.” Likewise, online learning is easy. I can come and go, I can freak out about my abilities, and then I can step in and give it a try.
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I decided to take Devon’s drawing class. He sent us the source photo, and I thought, “There is absolutely no way I can draw the guy he sent us.” He had one of those whoop-ti-doo handlebar moustaches. After I got over the initial panic, I was surprised. After a very short period of time, I recognized that the way he builds his drawings is very much like how I build my paintings. It’s about the shape, the shadow, and the relationships of things to each other. The fact that it’s a human face doesn’t really change the approach. I was surprised. I had this idea that the figure was way more complicated.
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It was very cool to challenge the idea of drawing being an inaccessible thing and to recognize that the tools that I have already crafted and developed in a different medium still apply. It isn’t like I’m back at square one; it’s cumulative, this knowledge and practice. I think our brain plays tricks on us and says, No, no, no, you can’t do that. It doesn’t take into account the work that we have already done. We get into the habit of limiting ourselves. I’m curious why our brain does that. Does it really go back to the sabre-tooth tiger we are trying to protect ourselves from?

It’s very self-limiting. What really is the worst that could happen? We go to a work shop, and we do crappy drawings. No one died. It’s not really as big a deal as our brains might have us think. 

Carollyne- Perhaps, in your case, you are remembering the humiliation that you experienced. I think there is that aspect in most of us when we feel we can’t do something. But, gosh, if we don’t try, we will never know the joy that we can feel. 

Ciel- I think in my case I set up a rule or a structure, and because of the humiliation and the lack of success or the feeling of self-fulfillment from a drawing practice, I put drawing in a box and said, Nope, that is not for me. I’m not good at that. I’m not going to practice that. I’m going to go and practice something else. It is my own construct. It speaks to our own physiology and how we perceive different things in our lives. Nope, that’s not for me; I’m going to go over here. But actually, we can have that. But our brain says, from past experience, I’m going to rule that out. 

Carollyne- I like drawing. I’m always so eager to get on with the painting. There was a male skater, and people said to him, How do you skate so well and so beautifully? He replied, I become one with the  ice." I think if we can become one with our subject through drawing even more than painting, we are feeling the line, every single line of it, and we are suggesting every nuance of shadow and light. Just allowing us the time to know that subject well before we throw our hearts over the bar and into the painting.

Ciel- Don’t you feel like it’s a real privilege to be immersed in a subject matter to such a degree that you feel a spiritual connection? 

Carollyne- Yes, it’s very uplifting. And even to have the luxury of being a woman painting today. I’ve travelled a lot, and I’ve seen people in third-world countries, and how their lives are just work every day.  I know they enjoy their families. We have this wonderful luxury of doing something we love, and we can get better at it. It gives us such tremendous joy. 

I'm yours

Ciel- The luxury and opportunity to put beauty out into the world gives the world a unique view, which I think is valuable. I’ve never had an impact on people like I do with my art. They may not buy a piece of art from me, but their comments about how their spirit has been lifted by something that I put out there are really wonderful.

Carollyne- All of the arts have the ability to do that. 

Ciel- The transition from the artist’s self-doubt, “Oh, I can’t do that,"  to a place of gratitude, “I have the gift, and I’m going to challenge myself and honour the benefit to myself and others when I allow myself to create," is really golden. 

I love that you safeguard your ideas that are still simmering.  To respect your creative journey.

Carollyne- I just find it works better that way.

Ciel- I think that is respectful of the creative journey because it’s not right to be picked just yet. 

Carollyne- That is a good analogy. 
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Ciel- Well, it is a real pleasure chatting with you today.  Thank you for these nuggets and share your time with me.  

To view more of Carollyne's work go directly to her website.  I've left the link below. 

https://www.carollynesinclaireartist.com