Carol finkbeiner thomas, altered traveller

For her first solo exhibition, London artist Carol Finkbeiner Thomas was inspired by Covid-19 experiences to put a new spin on a favourite series. The exhibition, being held opens on Tuesday September 22nd and continues until October 10th with a reception on Saturday September 26th from 1 – 4 pm.
 

Carol works in a few different series, one of which is called Traveller. The paintings in this series are not necessarily distinct places, rather they are inspired by Carol’s memories of places she’s visited.
 
During the lockdown Carol was compelled to paint over one of her traveler paintings in a more intentional way. She wanted to create something new while still retaining elements of the original painting. While she worked, Carol reflected on this time of involuntary change for all of us and the fact that while certain things are changing, other things remain immovable.

So many of us have had to put our travel plans on hold this year, and Carol’s paintings seem to propose the idea of travelling in your mind instead and exploring through imagination places fondly recalled, and those yet to be seen. From these ideas came the exhibition title, ‘Altered Traveller’.
 
A loose, freehand drawing provides the basis for each work, built up with oils applied by brush, palette knife or by other non-traditional methods and materials. Smaller scale colour studies, also seen in the exhibition, provide a starting point for the larger studio works. These expressive, abstracted landscape paintings communicate a sense of space and atmosphere as if you are walking over the land towards a distant horizon.
 
On display alongside these painting are Finkbeiner-Thomas’ black and white ceramic vases, decorated with a sgraffito technique.

Carol was born in London, Ontario and raised north of Toronto. She returned to London in the early 1990’s after receiving her Honours Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts at York University.

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