Welcome
Carol Bass began painting magnolias and camellias in the low country of South Carolina. Now she is an outsider artist in Maine and paints her dreams of fish and birds and how she imagines them being free. She is inspired by the outsider artists and their clear pathways to the heart.
She believes her work is about keeping the "cow path along-side of the informational highway", as poet David Whyte says. She does this with color and form and old-fashioned paint.
"To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures." Flannery O'Connor
"The work is about translating the abstract energies of nature into presentations of line, form and color. I follow bold, strong lines, natural or man-made that connect us to the earth. Through the use of saturated color, I translate joy and emotion.
Mondrian spoke about curves being too emotional. To be alive is to sway when we dance. Swirling winds blow, ferns unfurl, bodies arc in the waves, voices modulate with warmth, arms hold shoulders close. Rounded heart-vessels hold hot blood. Mother earth bends around us singing, holding us up to the sky as we travel on our journeys. Every touch is an opportunity for joy.
Arching lines surround ponds and lakes with a sensuous vitality. Lines flow with the river water, and lines, swirling with energy, are starting and ending tools for me in my work. "
Below: Maquettes, primed and ready for painting, are planned for large architectural steel pieces appropriately sized for sides of buildings.