May 23, 2022 | THE LAKER | Page 9
Finding the Beauty in Art – at Carol Lake Studio By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper Photos courtesy Carol Lake “I have always been artistically inclined. When the other kids were outside playing or watching TV, I was invariably drawing…endlessly drawing!” says Carol Lake. Carol is an artist living in Canterbury, New Hampshire. Her art spans painting to drawing to sculpture. Due to her curious nature, she is open to exploring new methods of making art. One never knows what Carol will experiment with next in her studio. She also works with ceramics and glass. “Art is just what I loved to do and still love to do. I grew up in Peterborough, New Hampshire. My father enjoyed drawing, my aunt was a professional artist on Cape Cod, and my sister was also a professional artist,” Carol says. Although Carol wanted to attend art school, it was not an easy path. “My father did not approve of me attending art school, as most schools at the time were in inner-city areas that he felt were not safe for a young lady from the country. I ended up going to the University of New Hampshire and started in their fine arts program, but was disenchanted when I was told there would be no classical drawing, only Abstract Expressionism, which I was not interested in. So, I took workshops with people like James Aponovitch and other talented artists, which I continue to do to this day. Essentially, I was and continue to be self-taught,” she adds. Not only is Carol a visual artist, she also is a writer and musician, and has a background in classical dressage and
Carol Lake working on a painting. small farming. It is unusual for a busy artist such as Carol to have an interest in farming, but for her it makes sense. She says, “For many years I ran organic educational farms in New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York, teaching adults and children about raising their own food and medicine, while connecting with the seasons, animals, and the earth. My husband and I moved to Canterbury from our small farm in Dublin, New
Hampshire several years ago.” The year 2022 is chock full of interesting projects for Carol, who explains, “I have a full year ahead with lots of exciting projects happening, including a commissioned sculpture for the Abenaki tribe in New Hampshire, and also illustrating a children’s book, making a new line of painted and fused glass lighting and fine art, and of course my normal private commissions (including a life-sized sculpture of a child catching
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a frog, which will be a fountain) and a busy event painting schedule.” Speaking of her many art projects, Carol explains, “One of my pottery pieces (an image of a crow on a ceramic hand-built plate) was just juried into an international exhibit in San Diego, and my ceramics and fused glass art were recently juried into one of the top 10 nationally ranked craft fairs for the fall. So yes, I am busy. Next year I hope to teach some in-person workshops at my farm in Canterbury.” One of the interesting avenues Carol’s works has taken is painting on-site, live, during weddings. Couples see her work and commission Carol to set up and paint a scene from their wedding, creating a lasting piece of art of their special day. This unique idea began when Carol happened upon a bulletin board notice. She says, “My live event/wedding painting began one day when I happened to look on the bulletin board at a large art supply store in Connecticut. I noticed a flyer, looking for an artist to paint outdoors at a wedding. I answered the ad and ever since then I have been busy (with wedding paintings). It was for a beautiful wedding along the Hudson River and was written up in a blog post by Martha Stewart. Business took off after that.” Many people and even some artists, would be apprehensive about being watched by wedding guests while painting. The pressure to paint in front • Carol Lake continued on page 10
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