‘Before the Bath’ by Carla Paine

“Before the Bath” is a painting of light and quiet movement.

I wanted to capture a private moment and I looked to Vermeer, with his intimate explorations of light, movement, and color, (most especially his painting The Milkmaid) for inspiration and for clues as to how to keep moving forward.

This artwork was part of the FAA exhibition Letting Us In.

When I first envisioned this work, I pictured the woman a dancer, maybe a ballerina, the morning after a performance. Having recently woken, she reaches down, rubs out her aches and pains, stretches. She is having a dialogue with her body, assessing its wear from the dance as well as rejoicing in her physical capabilities. When she rises she will draw herself a bath.

While I had a solid idea of the pose very early on, the exact composition of the background and the treatment of values was challenging and I changed my mind a number of times as the painting progressed.

With the addition of the basket, another rug, and the plate, each at different stages, I searched for the right composition to aid the eye around the painting and to soften the strength of the downward movement in the figure. The last object painted was the plate and that, in my eyes, completed the spiral composition I was seeking. The plate, with its hint of yellow was also tribute to Vermeer’s use of primary colors. With the blue and red rug, the yellow was needed to fully balance the palette.

Continuing to push and compress values was my greatest struggle. Choosing where to keep information, where to loose it, and how light to paint the lights was something that developed until the very end of the painting. Ignoring the color in the flesh and instead opting for light in order to connect the figure with the background was difficult and took many passes over the figure to achieve my desired effect.

As a painter, I am always seeking to improve both my technique and my artistic vision. My aim with each new work is to create something more beautiful than I have previously painted. Of course this is not always possible but I mention this because for me, this work was a big step in a new direction. With so much space surrounding the figure the interior needed to be very seriously and thoughtfully addressed. The woman, caught in the midst of an action, had to be both fluid within herself as well as fluid within her surroundings. These compositional decisions made Before the Bath a very complex work for me and I imagine that it will be something of a corner-stone that I will continue to build upon in my works to come.

More about Carla:

Carla Louise Paine (b. 1982) American, was educated in the traditions and techniques of classical oil painting in Florence, Italy.  There, at the Florence Academy of Art, she completed three years of intense study, spending her last trimester in 2010 in Sweden at the Academy’s Scandinavian branch.  Prior to that she studied at the highly regarded School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Carla has received numerous awards and recognition for her work including being two times awarded ‘Best Nude’ in the annual Art Renewal Center Salon as well as being awarded ‘Collections Magazine Award’ and the ‘Duel Category Award.  She has received both ‘Best Figurative’ and ‘Collector’s Choice Award’ from the International Guild of Realism, multiple Bold Brush Awards, second place in The Artist’s Magazine figurative competition, and has been included in Southwest Art Magazine ‘Artist to Watch’ feature.  She has also been a participant in exhibitions nation wide as well as over seas, including exhibiting with The Art Renewal Center’s 2015 and 2020 Exhibition at the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona Spain, Oil Painters of America, The National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, The International Guild of Realism, and The Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art.

Currently living in Washington State, Carls has set up a studio on her small farm just outside of the state’s capitol, Olympia.  It is there, in a landscape of cow dappled fields, abundant gardens, and lush woods, and living with her husband and three-year old son, that Carla finds her daily inspiration.

To view more of Carla’s work visit:

Instagram: @paine.carla

Website: www.carlapaine.com

FAA alumni Gallery: Carla Louis Paine