Steven Paul Carlson
Artist's Statement
Promoting peace, imparting beauty and stimulating awareness thru art.
What if, at the very young age of 6, you knew what your life profession would be?
To know exactly what you would be doing for the rest of your life?
That was how it was for me. The year was 1959, I had just graduated from kindergarten and I knew I was going to be an artist and illustrator; I even knew the kind of art I would be doing.
At this tender age all my friends still wanted to be cowboys. I wanted to be Norman Rockwell!
My name is Steven Paul Carlson.
I call myself a portrait artist, although I do much more than portraits; I do however approach every subject, whether human, animal or nature, as a portrait. And, in that portrait, I capture and reveal life, living and breathing. Even thinking. Life so vividly portrayed that you expect the head to turn, the eyes to blink or a hand to gesture.
Each piece takes me on an extraordinary journey into the brilliance of a new and wonderful subject. Journeying deep into the intricate details of each piece creates a special relationship where artist and subject and ultimately the viewer connect and become one. I sense, feel and see into and thru the subject. And through this mystical union the subject’s inner essence is captured within my art. Life gives birth to art and the art, in turn, conceives a new entity.
I have a passion for pastel and graphite; their tactile quality gives me a sense and feel of the surfaces I’m creating. The pastel technique that I use enables me to apply many soft translucent layers of chalk one on top of the other. The development of this unique pastel technique has been a lifetime pursuit.
The aim of art is to represent not just the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. ~Aristotle
What if, at the very young age of 6, you knew what your life profession would be?
To know exactly what you would be doing for the rest of your life?
That was how it was for me. The year was 1959, I had just graduated from kindergarten and I knew I was going to be an artist and illustrator; I even knew the kind of art I would be doing.
At this tender age all my friends still wanted to be cowboys. I wanted to be Norman Rockwell!
My name is Steven Paul Carlson.
I call myself a portrait artist, although I do much more than portraits; I do however approach every subject, whether human, animal or nature, as a portrait. And, in that portrait, I capture and reveal life, living and breathing. Even thinking. Life so vividly portrayed that you expect the head to turn, the eyes to blink or a hand to gesture.
Each piece takes me on an extraordinary journey into the brilliance of a new and wonderful subject. Journeying deep into the intricate details of each piece creates a special relationship where artist and subject and ultimately the viewer connect and become one. I sense, feel and see into and thru the subject. And through this mystical union the subject’s inner essence is captured within my art. Life gives birth to art and the art, in turn, conceives a new entity.
I have a passion for pastel and graphite; their tactile quality gives me a sense and feel of the surfaces I’m creating. The pastel technique that I use enables me to apply many soft translucent layers of chalk one on top of the other. The development of this unique pastel technique has been a lifetime pursuit.
The aim of art is to represent not just the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. ~Aristotle