Featured Artist of the Month : Carole Rafferty May. 2017 | TheArtList - Art & Photo Calls for Visual Artists and Photographers.

Carole Rafferty

Palo Alto, CA

Carole Rafferty is an award-winning artist who specializes in both portraits and oil paintings of urban scenes. Born and raised in the UK, Rafferty attended London University. She moved to the Bay Area in 1977 and earned a joint master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Asian Studies and Journalism. She reported from Pakistan and Afghanistan and has written for the New York Times and the Mercury News as well as a dozen other newspapers in a career that spanned two decades.Rafferty started painting 15 years ago and she has won many awards for her paintings.

How and when did you start creating art?

About 15 years ago I took a drawing class at my local college. Everyone in the class was fresh out of high school. Let’s just say I was the oldest in the class by about 30 years! But I loved it and one class led to another and that led to workshops and a year long series of classes in French academic style figure painting.

What media and genres do you work in?

I work primarily in oils but sometimes I try my hand at watercolors. Portraits and figure painting are my greatest love but but urban landscapes are also favorites. I love the complexity of the city, the hustle and bustle, and the constant sense of motion. I’m fortunate to live near San Francisco because the beauty of the city is always an inspiration and the light is constantly changing.

Who or what are your influences?

In no particular order Sergei Bongart, Lucian Freud, Alex Kanevsky. Edgar Payne, James Hart Dyke, Anders Zorn, Brendan Kelly.

What was your inspiration for Over The Hill #3: Alcatraz from Leavenworth & Chestnut?

A friend lives on Russian Hill, not far from this particular scene. I’ve walked down this block so many time and never seen the same light twice. On this particular day I loved the shimmery sight of Alcatraz in the San Francisco haze.

Describe your creative process?

For my landscapes I’ll be walking in the city and see something that inspires me and I’ll spend some time just looking at it and interpreting what it is about that scene that attracts me. Once I’ve figured out what it is I want to convey, I’ll take photos, lots of them, on my iphone. (I used to carry a camera with me but life has got a lot easier...) I have a small pochade box I keep in my car and so I’ll also do some small plein air sketches in oil until I’ve found my composition and my color palette. Then I go back to my studio and start on the bigger canvasses........ painting a successful urban landscape has to do with editing out most of the details and trying to keep it as simple as possible.