Artists to Watch
Bonnie Gangelhoff
Focus on Carol Jenkins, Tim Perkins, and Daniel Aldana
 Basin of Flowers |
Carol Jenkins
Spring gardens, kitchen sinks, and sun-dappled courtyards. Colorado-based painter Carol Jenkins says she chooses subject matter from whatever catches her eye. Often, her subjects-of-choice tend to include an element of nature. “I love being outside, but I also love interiors,” Jenkins explains. The artist makes her home in the small town of Ward, CO, which boasts a population of 170 people. “It’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a national forest and just below a wilderness area,” she says. The location suits Jenkins fine because she treasures time spent in the woods—a source of inspiration for her landscape paintings.
Jenkins refuses to give much thought to sending a message to viewers in her works. “I am not trying to convey anything more than what inspires me,” she says. “I just look out, and if the scene looks as if it has beautiful design and composition and visually sings to me, I paint it.”
In 2006 and 2007, Jenkins won the Artists’ Choice award for the best body of work at the annual Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters show held at Elk Horn Fine Art Gallery in Winter Park, CO. She is represented by Mary Williams Fine Arts, Boulder, CO; Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver, CO; and Bishop Gallery, Allenspark, CO, and Scottsdale, AZ.
 Brown Vase |
While Arizona painter Tim Perkins was in the United States Air Force, he spent 20 years traveling around the world on various assignments. When based in Europe, Perkins also had the opportunity to travel to Paris, where he went on a memorable, life-changing excursion to the Louvre. “I was awestruck by the art, and I decided right then that I wanted to learn how to paint,” he recalls of the experience. Thus, when he left the Air Force in his late 30s, Perkins turned to pursuing art seriously. He is a self-taught artist but he has taken valuable workshops, he says, at the Scottsdale Artists’ School with such teachers as David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw, Robert Johnson, and Greg Kreutz.
Perkins eventually settled on the still-life genre as the one most suited to his artistic temperament. “I like the control you have with still life. I can set it up the way I want it,” he says. These days he finds beauty and mystery in the shadows and the dark areas of his tableaux. His moody still-life works reference the Dutch masters and he is fond of featuring traditional objects such as fruits, vases, and flowers.
Perkins has won numerous awards recently, including Best of Show at the Wickenburg Fine Art Show earlier this year and second place at the 2006 Best and Brightest show at the Scottsdale Artists’ School. He is represented by www.timperkinsfineart.com.
 The Turquoise Towel |
Daniel Aldana
In 2005, Southern California painter Daniel Aldana gave up a promising career in forensic pediatric medicine for the love of art. Aldana had spent his adult life in medicine, graduating from Yale Medical School in 1993 and then working for 10 years as a pediatrician. But his passion always lay in art, he explains. Like many future artists, he remembers drawing from his earliest years, mostly action heroes and sharks.
Aldana eventually majored in art and biology in college. And during his medical career he also began studying art, taking classes with the prominent artist Nelson Shanks at the Art Students League in New York.
Today, he is at home painting landscapes, but figurative works strike the loudest creative chord with him. “Figures are the hardest and most challenging. When I see a successful portrait, it always speaks to me as a human being,” Aldana says. It comes as no surprise that he is inspired by Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla, considered a master of figures and light in the landscape.
Aldana has won a number of awards since moving into his new career, including first place at the Huntington Beach Plein Air Painting Festival in 2005 and 2006. This year he won second place at the festival. He also took the first place award at the 2006 miniatures show sponsored by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) based in Laguna Beach, CA. Aldana is a member of LPAPA and the California Art Club. He is represented by www.danielaldana.com.
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