Todd Carpenter

No Escape from Nature

2018

"The Factory Builds Eternally East" depicts a open skies and city lights. This scene is of no particular place, but rather Carpenter's interpretation and compilation of various places he has visited. As a painter, I examine how the depiction of light contributes to our experience of paintings. The portrayal of light helps a painting to convey the atmosphere and mood of a scene, and is much of what enables a painting to convey depth and realism. Our perception of lighting features occurs largely through pathways in the brain that carry only black and white information, pathways which are distinct from areas that encode the colors and details we use to delineate specific objects. By painting in grayscale, I try to interact specifically with this region of our visual system, with the hope of conveying some of the spaciousness and emotional significance that light can imbue on scenes. Light, whether as the crisp contrast of a back-lit forest or the gray haze of an industrial landscape, is what defines a scene. Its power to communicate the feel of a place is the principle subject of my paintings. The Blue Azul...

"Future Shadow" is of a scene in the woods. This scene is of no particular place, but rather his interpretation and compilation of various places he has visited. As a painter, I examine how the depiction of light contributes to our experience of paintings. The portrayal of light helps a painting to convey the atmosphere and mood of a scene, and is much of what enables a painting to convey depth and realism. Our perception of lighting features occurs largely through pathways in the brain that carry only black and white information, pathways which are distinct from areas that encode the colors and details we use to delineate specific objects. By painting in grayscale, I try to interact specifically with this region of our visual system, with the hope of conveying some of the spaciousness and emotional significance that light can imbue on scenes. Light, whether as the crisp contrast of a back-lit forest or the gray haze of an industrial landscape, is what defines a scene. Its power to communicate the feel of a place is the principle subject of my paintings. The Blue Azul Collection...

A fine impressionist landscape in the Souhegan Valley of New Hampshire, probably Wilton, by American artist Chauncey Foster Ryder (1868-1949). Ryder grew up in New Haven, Connecticut...

A beautifully detailed late 17th or early 18th century Dutch or Flemish landscape with cows grazing in the water, goats, dogs, and other animals near the water’s edge, under the watchful eye of the herdsmen, on a backdrop of rolling hills and trees. Oil on wood panel, unsigned, and housed in a Rudolph...