Artist Statement

I glean inspiration from a scene of beauty, a sense of peace and the interplay between color and light. My compositions are guided by intuition and influenced by my roots, travels and cultural experiences. As I paint, I feel a sense of elevation, awe and gratitude; and this is what I aim to convey to my viewers. A patron once said, “You have a kind and gentle nature and it emanates in your paintings.”

Although I am a classically trained oil painter, my personal aesthetic tends towards a more abstract, impressionistic style. My subject matter relies most heavily towards landscapes, but I also paint still lifes and figures. In my most recent work, I am pushing the boundaries of a reductive process. I reduce a landscape view to its most essential form, yet strive to retain the integrity and feel of the original scene and the source behind the original inspiration.

Biography

Carla Wales is a painter, whose still life and landscape compositions are guided by intuition and influenced by her roots, travels and cultural experiences.

Born in the Philippines, Carla traveled the world with her family before relocating to the United States in 1981. After graduating from Goucher College (Baltimore, MD) with a degree in Liberal Arts, she continued her travels calling Madrid, Barcelona, Barbados, Mexico and Panama “home.” At the suggestion of a mentor, Wales began to explore a career in fine arts in 1994 and settled in New York. She studied drawing and painting at the Art Student’s League with Jack Faragasso, at the Ridgewood Art Institute with John Osborne and at the Aviano Academy of Fine Arts.

As Carla hit her stride, her paintings caught the attention of art collectors. Over the years, she has garnered the support of several patrons, and her oil paintings reside in many private national and international collections. In 2002, Wales had a solo exhibition in Manila, Philippines at Gallery 139. She has also exhibited her work throughout New York, including Ceres Gallery (Manhattan), the Art Student’s League (Manhattan), Town & Country Gallery (Pound Ridge), Emily Shaw’s (Pound Ridge), Lionheart Gallery (Pound Ridge), Bistro 22 (Bedford) and Paint Box (Bedford Hills). She has exhibited in Connecticut at the Flinn Gallery (Greenwich), Ivy Lane (New Canaan), Adelaide Fine Art (New Canaan), SPAG Gallery (Norwalk) and Geary Gallery (Darien).

In addition to her fine art pursuits, Wales has a parallel career as a decorative painter. She creates custom faux finishes, murals, Venetian and other specialty plasters, intricate stenciling and gilding in residential and commercial spaces. She has a substantial portfolio and ever-expanding professional client base in New York and Connecticut.

Carla Wales lives in Pound Ridge and maintains a studio in the Firing Circuits Art Studios in Norwalk.

For information on Firing Circuits Studios go to firing circuits studios