User:Mj5946/sandbox

Carin Gerard
Carin Gerard (American, 1958) is a Santa Barbara based artist who is greatly inspired by exaggerating nature’s beauty. Gerard was born into the art world as both her parents were artists. Her mother did Fine Art and was a teacher as well who taught Art and English. Her father was an Architect. He worked for Joseph Eichler. Her parents divorced when she was nine and she moved around many times until her mother passed when she was 11 and then her family was shot into foster care. During foster care she used art as a way to cope and that's where she found her passion.

Gerard graduated from Bowling Green State University in Ohio (1976- 1980), with a degree in Fine Arts. She then continued her studies throughout Europe studying the old classic masters in the art museums in places like Italy, France, Amsterdam, and England. She graduated again from Magna Cum Laude. Then Gerard went to an Atelier in Florence, Italy, The Charles Cecil Atelier also known as the Florence Academy of Art.

Gerard is a Classical Realism artist who paints nature with great detail. about She takes elements from the Renaissance with her Realism and the unconstrained elements of Contemporary Art. It combines dramatic light and shadows. To gain attention, instead of painting on a small scale she decided to switch to large scale paintings.

[|thumb|Butterflies and Flowers]

Gerard is inspired by nature. The subjects tend to be butterflies and flowers. She takes photos of all her subjects before she goes in. Gerard wants to capture a moment in time which is a very Renaissance inspired feature to her art and the Realism captured makes her art pop and look very real. Gerard also likes to keep it sometimes monochromatic especially with her pieces that include flowers to make it look like a sculpture.

Gerard has a very particular way of painting. She begins with tinting her canvas, called the Imprimatura. She the stain's the canvas with a thinned out color and Gamsol. Gerard then draws out her subject in a smaller sketchbook where she can perfect her composition for the final piece. This also allows for the imprimatura to dry and be ready for the paint. Gerard then transfers her sketch and begins the "wipe out process". She blocks in her subject with highlights using white paint. After this, Gerard fially starts adding more color but still very limited colors as it is somewhat monochromatic. Then she has her finished piece.



Today, Gerard resides in Santa Barbara, California. Gerard's art can be found at exhibits around as she has done quite a few showings. She is typically in California but has gone to Italy and Japan and other places around the world.