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Artist Statement:
Carole's work has found
admirers from Panama to Japan
to Europe and on both coasts
of the United States. Self
taught, her interests range
widely from natural studies of
both human and animal subjects
to mythic, mystical,
geo-political and scientific
matters. Her website,
www.CaroleEstrup.com, also
features samples of her
poetry....
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Reviews for Carole Estrup:
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"I think your work is indeed extraordinary and quite
unique." Donald Trump
"Carole Estrup renders multi-cultural subject
matter in a renaissance style. With special
attention to figure and form, she deftly creates
scenes that are visual feasts, with every inch
of canvas drawing your eyes for inspection.
When presenting us with portraits of every
world culture, both past and present, Carole
gives us the best of that culture, the most
beautiful. Some pieces work in comforting
earth tones ... others in rich classic tones to
vividly accent the mood of the painting.
Carole clearly believes there is something
beautiful to see, no matter where you are
in the world. Her paintings let her share that
vision with us." Chris Jenkins, http://dubiousprofundity.com
"I found this site to be quite breathtaking. It is a gallery of paintings, yet they contain more life and movement than I have seen in art in a long time. As I looked through her gallery, I felt that this was truly the expression of herself, her soul. While others express in words, Estrup communicates powerfully through paintings in a way that captures my attention completely. The longer I look at each painting, the more they seem to become alive, or at least to exude a strong feeling that is uplifting and hopeful. Whether or not you would ever want to own such artwork, it is worth just looking through from time to time to simply benefit from the energy that is projected." Submitted by: Helen Labovitch
SubtleTea.com
"Klimt and the Purity of Death" - by Fred Jansen
© 2007 Fred Jansen
So Gustav Klimt has become the world’s most sought after painter. Is anyone surprised?
Consider his time, the turn of the last century. It was an era of industrial robber barons, failing royal empires, white and black slavery and social upheaval. Incredible wealth boiling atop grim poverty, all of it condoned and encouraged by various religious factions. Called the Age of Decadence, the artist himself condemned Europe as a spreading pornography of crucifixes.
The women he portrayed might have come right out of case histories compiled by Sigmund Freud. The vast majority of his upper crust patients suffered paralyzing hysteria, the doctor reported, caused by incest and other brutalities. Or maybe Klimt’s models were actual corpses, their paleness highlighted by blue shadows and hues of oxygen starved blood and flesh. Certainly most of them seemed arrayed in broken, perverse poses. He encased them in gold leaf robes or gowns heavy and solid as a sarcophagus. We get a necrophilian kiss and the promise of much more to come.
Perhaps Klimt was simply prescient. Did he visualize the coming century of world-wide butchery? Seer or not, it is possible to see all of that sorrowful history in Klimt’s work.
So now is the time to look at another painter, one who uses gold to tell us about the living. She is Carole Estrup and for many decades she has recorded the vitality of cultures which are our living, but endangered heritage. From the rain forests and ritual huts of American natives to the ancient monuments of China and India, out of our cave homes into the enlightened imagery of the cosmos, she weaves visual evidence of a profound, ever tantalizing future.
Her figures are often crowded, interlocked in a dance of propagation. Examples include "The Seven Continents" and a socio-political series which includes "Rebirth of Africa" and "Paradise Lost". Her earlier collection, called "Evolution of the Soul", was widely acclaimed and set amidst the stars like deities we imagine explain the scientific secrets of eternity. More earthly concepts like "Creation of the Four Winds" and "Anabasis" show us the natural phenomenon of energy, of motion and upwelling with egocentric, human eyes.
Paintings depicting the lone human figure, such as the mysterious "The Smiling Knight" are not rare, but they are also adazzle with living and physical spiritual symbols. "The Swan of Tuonela" takes on the mythology of death, of a living individual’s acceptance of that process. Yet all about every such individual life in the plant and animal world goes on, and most of us happily accept that, too.
Gold, we have believed since early-human times, is a gift of the sun, of its body and essence. Rather, we know now, our sun’s gift is light in all of its invisible invaluable energies. Those colors are found on Carole’s pallet, varied and vibrant as the universe itself. They are the substance and action with which all the creatures shout life, living, being! Some find Estrup’s vision just the right antidote for our recent steady diet of victimization, betrayal and fear. It might be named inspiration, resolve, even passion.
All work is copyrighted property of Fred Jansen.
© 2007 SubtleTea Productions All Rights Reserved
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