In her first solo show in Santa Barbara, Carolyn Hubbs presents vibrant abstract paintings in acrylic—jazzy compositions that evolve from her sketches of favorite locations in and around Santa Barbara. Her drawings simplify and reconstruct the natural spaces she observes outdoors. In the studio she transforms them into playful, complex rearrangements of shapes, colors and rhythms that move in and out of the picture plane. The exhibition includes several of Hubbs’ field sketches and corresponding paintings.
“Outdoors, I look for the strongest element (rhythm, color, line, shape) in the ‘scene’ that catches my interest and then develop everything else around it. Back in the studio I study my notes and then start to make a painting by rearranging everything and playing with the interactions of colors and rhythms. I like to use disruptions and disjunctions to give the whole picture movement. The picture is complete when, finally giving into the poetics of the unpredictable, I have built a whole new image that resonates with me. Sometimes they look totally abstract; sometimes more like landscape!”
Hubbs graduated from Mills College with a B. A. in art history and studies in photography and printmaking. Later, she studied at U.C.L.A. Extension School with Charles Garabedian. Her eclectic influences include jazz pianist Bill Evans, the 15th c. artist Sassetta, Stuart Davis, and Ellsworth Kelly as well as artist/teachers Colin Fraser Gray and Rick Stich. She has exhibited internationally, in Los Angeles, at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang, and at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara.
