Show Preview | Carver & Elliott - Southwest Art Magazine

Fredericksburg, TX
InSight Gallery, November 1-21

Jill Carver, Fading Moon Over Comanche Bluffs, oil, 36 x 48.

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Those enamored with the work of Jill Carver and Teresa Elliott won’t want to miss their two-person show at InSight Gallery this month. Together the artists bring more than a dozen new oil paintings that highlight their signature styles, yet they also explore subtle new directions. “Jill and Teresa are at a wonderful place in their careers,” says gallery owner Elizabeth Harris. “They’ve established themselves in their respective genres and are reaching out and trying new things.” Carver and Elliott are on hand to meet collectors at a reception on Friday, November 3, at 6 p.m.

Earlier this year, Carver moved from her longtime home in Austin, TX, to Rico, CO, but nearly all of the landscape painter’s new pieces celebrate her favorite areas in Texas, including Bandera and Pedernales Falls State Park. In BEAVER POND, however, she pays homage to a spot near Rico where she routinely paints. “I enjoy that ongoing conversation with places I’ve gotten to know well,” she says, “and then taking these intimate, close-up scenes and making them iconic.”

: Jill Carver, Beaver Pond, oil, 30 x 32.

: Teresa Elliott, Big Sky, oil, 24 x 36.

: Teresa Elliott, Equine Calm, oil, 30 x 24.

Carver, who views nature as her “spiritual compass in life,” continues to rely on plein-air studies as the foundation for all her work. Lately she has been working on increasingly larger pieces in her studio over extended periods of time, gradually building up “layers of information” through texture, brushwork, and a varied palette, she says. Her largest piece in the show—a 36-by-48-inch work titled FADING MOON OVER COMANCHE BLUFFS—exemplifies this deeper exploration into texture and color, as well as her gift for marrying abstraction and realism in painterly harmony.

Among Elliott’s latest works, a majority feature her sensitive, lifelike portraits of bovines. For inspiration, the artist often draws upon the quiet desert around her studio in Alpine, TX. In BIG SKY, she portrays a Texas longhorn looking away from viewers into the infinite West Texas countryside. Purposeful scrapes in her paint are visible along the cow’s hide. “I use a lot of fancy techniques when painting hair and hide, but this piece has an impressionistic feel, with more texture,” notes Elliott.

: Jill Carver, Evening Glow, Big Bend, oil, 20 x 50.

: Jill Carver, Mist, Bandera Creek, oil, 24 x 24.

: Jill Carver, Pedernales Sentinels, oil, 40 x 40.

In contrast, the artist’s typically detailed handling of hair and fur is evident in EQUINE CALM, a tightly cropped portrait of a striking chestnut-brown horse. While Elliott has spent a great deal of time photographing her bovine subjects, she admits that horses are a touch outside her comfort zone. Still, the peaceful, gentle-spirited creature makes a fitting addition to her oeuvre. “I feel like a calm and quiet comes out in my paintings. It’s what I want in my own life,” she says.

Overall, the show itself reflects a tranquility that emanates from each artist’s work, notes Harris. “Teresa and Jill are very calm and unhurried people, and I think that comes out in their paintings,” she says. “At the same time, their work is very powerful, but it’s coming from a very quiet, inner peace. When you have an inner stillness, I think it creates a power within you that you’re able to harness.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
830.997.9920
www.insightgallery.com