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SABINE CARLSON

Drawing, Painting, Visual / Media

One time on a hike at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, I saw a bird who lives on the water walk amidst a stand of trees. The bird’s feet looked like swim fins. The trees stood.
Ways of traversing landscape is a recurring theme in my work. I aim for a wobbly kind of balance, where definition and doubt keep each other upright.

About the Artist

Sabine Carlson is an American painter born in Cologne, Germany. She exhibits widely in the United States as well as internationally. Her paintings are featured in ‘Studio Visit’, ‘American Art Collector’, ‘West Branch’ and ‘New American Paintings’. Her work is included in public, corporate and private collections in Germany, Italy, in the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. 2024 exhibitions: cont. through Jan 20, "Just a Moment", mini solos of recent work by nine Affiliates, at Viridian Artists, New York, NY. Recent exhibitions include 'Herstory, An Exhibition for All Genders’, at Viridian Artists, New York, NY;  ‘Art Maryland 2022’, biennial survey juried by Schroeder Cherry, at HCAC, Ellicott City, MD; ‘Anticipation’, an Exhibition of work by 6 Viridian Affiliates, at Viridian Artists, New York, NY; ‘Finding Home’, 33rd Annual Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition, Juror: Nancy Sausser, at Harmony Hall Art Center, Fort Washington, MD; ‘Symbiotic Presence’ juried by Shanti Norris, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD; 'Tracing Ripples’, paintings by Sabine Carlson, at the Ebbeler Family Maryland Heritage Center Gallery, Pyramid Atlantic Arts Building, Hyattsville, MD; ‘12th Annual Contemporary Figurative Show', Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, MO; 'Mid Atlantic New Painting 2018', University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA; 'CHROMA, Paintings by Sabine Carlson and Robert Matthews, HCAC, Ellicott City, MD. Carlson holds a BFA degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. She has lived and worked in the Mid Atlantic Region since 1995. Since 2005 her studio is located in College Park, MD.

SABINE CARLSON website View Website

Artist's Statement

The figures in my recent paintings show their identity in fleeting partial views. Humans have floating devices or ice skates. Birds’ exaggerated swim fins point to a life in the water, but in the paintings you find them balancing as if on dry land. Encounters show the birds as if inquiring about the human’s feet, wondering as they wander about. Where have you been? Where are you going? How do you stand? I aim for my paintings to make beautiful visual spaces that nourish the persistence of these questions. My paintings are handmade. I currently prefer small and midsize formats, using acrylic paints on wood supports that are between 1” and 1.5” deep. My colors are bright, with lots of light in them. My inspiration for these comes from hiking with my dogs in the larger DC – Baltimore area nature preserves such as Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, Greenbelt Park and Lake Artemisia. The representational imagery in my paintings often shows strange or unlikely encounters. The colors create the harmonies and structures that give everything a place to be together.  

Featured Work

Photos

A bird on a blue shape is looking at a pair of skating boots to the left of it. The human legs are shown just up to below the knees. the human is wearing purple pants. behind there are partially shown orange floats. to the right of the bird is a backpack shown see through style with a pouch on it that echoes the shape of the backpack. the background is light orange yellow ochre, the foreground a brightly yellow plain.
A water bird is looking at an ice skater's feet. the bird is standing at the edge of a blue field, the skater on a narrow grey foreground. behind on the left is a second smaller skater. the figures are shown just up to below the hips. The background is a medium green.
A water bird on the left and an orange dog on the right stand in front of a group of humans who are shown wearing orange floats. The group stands closely together. in the background behind are fields of color, grey, light blue, darker blue, bright blue and yellow like the colors of the Ukrainian flag in the upper right hand corner.
on a light yellow ground with a patch of green in the lower left corner stands a water bird looking at the feet of a human wearing an orange float. the human figure is seen from the back. there are two more humans with orange floats partially shown in the right foreground.
this shows an encounter between a blue water bird and a human on ice skates on a ground of quilted shapes of yellows, greens, greys and blue. the human figure is shown up to below the hip. there is an echo in the back of another sketchy figure just hinted at.
painting showing figures of humans and a water bird reaching out and looking for balance.