In the News
Art of Possibilities: Artist transforms a life-changing event into a new medium
By Dean Poling, Valdosta Daily Times
Moultrie artist Anna C. Carlton has only been painting watercolors for a few years, which is a stunning revelation after spending a time viewing her work on display at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, but she has been an artist since childhood. A life-changing experience, however, led to her relatively recent discovery of watercolors.
She was the middle child of an artistic family in Dawson, she says. Her mother sculpted. Two of her Mother's siblings were professional artists. Her parents ushered the children to exhibits and concerts throughout the sibling's childhoods.
Beginning with painting lessons as a child, Carlton recalls, art has always been part of her life. As a young adult, she studied art at the University of South Florida and earned a bachelor's degree in art education from the University of Georgia.
Following graduation, she married John M. Carlton Jr., an attorney in Moultrie, where they have lived for many years. She raised two daughters and has taught art in various ways for 35 years. She has continued her art education with classes at Valdosta State University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and in workshops with internationally known watercolor instructors.
For years, Carlton's art was three dimensional pieces. She created baskets and pottery, delved into the rigors of printmaking, sculpted clay and paper-mache, pieced together textured collages.
Then a dramatic event occurred in her life.
About four years ago, Carlton says she had several cervical spinal surgeries. She could no longer teach art in schools. The surgeries left her unable to work in the often physically demanding processes of three-dimensional art.
Yet, art was not just a passing thing for Carlton. Art was an intricate part of her life. An artist is an artist, and Anna Carlton had to create. She tried other forms of art, other ways of expressing herself. This one-time shaper of clay lighted upon one of the most subtle mediums. She discovered watercolor and Carlton immersed herself in studying it.
"The desire to create is a gift," she says, "painting is a statement of my feelings and inner self, my emotions and my soul. It comes from my heart. My art helps satisfy my desire to share cherished places in nature and the inner energy that created them. To give a more intimate view, to capture a serene, calm image."
She studied watercolor with Joe McFadden at the Florida Art Center and Gallery, Havana, Fla. Since, she has studied watercolor from numerous artists and teachers, studying various techniques, finding her own way to express her way in this medium. While finding her way in watercolors, she discovered the colors of nature and devoted herself to panting nature scenes.
In creating a watercolor, she usually starts with a blank paper. Rarely does she sketch an underdrawing on the paper. Instead, she pours the "liquid paint" onto the paper and begins her compositions from this point. "I'm fascinated by the process of water on the paper as the pigments mix and mingle, the interplay of the intended and the random," Carlton notes in an artistic statement.
From various photos, she creates an image she likes. "I'm not interested in a perfect bloom or image, but to show a hint of the metamorphosis of an image or reflection," she says. "I'm looking for new possibilities in textural qualities, light playing across an image, play of colors and contrasts."
In watercolor, Carlton seems to have found her new possibilities as an artist. Her images are bright with colors, deep in complementary contrasts, strong in shape and form. She duly recognizes the proud colors in nature but creates a bloom that reflects her insights. As a youngster and a young artist, Carlton says, she usually worked from memory and her imagination. Now, she more often uses reference materials in creating her images, but her years of using imagination and memory give these newer works an intriguing twist in nuance and design.
Carlton, who has returned to teaching, has learned that an artist is not defined by a medium but rather an artist is defined by the need to create. If a door closes on one medium then an artist seeks out a new medium. In Carlton's watercolors, she has applied herself as if watercolors have been her medium of choice for a lifetime rather than the brief term of a few years.