“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock,” opined inspirational author H. Jackson Brown, “the stream always wins – not through strength but by perseverance.”
Lack of quit may well be the defining hallmark of talented artist Caroline Stanley. Stanley, born in South Africa and raised in Calgary, has staunchly resisted lifelong temptations to pursue “safer” callings. Her latest exhibit, "Begins in Wonder", launching Saturday, Nov. 12 at Gibson Fine Art, is a veritable victory dance. In this case, the winner is not the persistent stream, but her appreciative audience.
Caroline Stanley entered the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) in 2003. “I actually intended to major in visual communications/design because of the fact that jobs were more likely to come from it, but after taking a few classes I knew it wasn’t for me,” laughs Stanley. “But I just knew this painting was what I had to do, and I believed that, somehow, something would come out of it.”
At ACAD, teachers challenged Stanley’s artistic instincts, pointing her in various conceptual directions. “The challenge was good,” recalls Stanley, “but I had to come back to produce work that was actually within me to create – work that was true to me.”
After graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Stanley set up shop at the Burns Visual Arts Society and began to answer, full-time, the call of her heart and authentic perspectives. Her signature work captures the oft-overlooked brilliance and depth of commonplace nature: trees, bark, leaves, lakes, waves, riffles. Her canvasses are luxuriantly backdropped in the insouciant tones of bold oils, which galvanize the onlooker’s eye.
Stanley’s loyalty to her instincts has led to the creation and sales of works through two recessions. While economic malaise has exerted a heavy downward pressure throughout Alberta, her fortunes have defied gravity, and her works have provided an essential spark of light welcomed and even needed by her patrons and by the community at large.
At the 2013 Calgary Stampede, Stanley’s nature works were featured exclusively in the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Dream Home. They were called by many as “amazing". Stanley also received a first place award in 2015 at the Toronto West Arts Collaborative show at the CNE in Toronto.”
Join us this Saturday, at Gibson Fine Art, to experience, for yourself, the latest amazing work of Stanley’s talent, tenacity and trueness.