Artist study

about the original artist and my project process...

I intend to replicate Carly Drew’s piece entitled “Contested Ground Series II”. This original piece that I copied in my own interpretation, above, was completed in 2014. It is created on 34 in. x 48 in. paper mounted on panel, with a unique combination of watercolor, graphite, and acrylic. Drew created this work as part of her “Contested Ground” series. Other series she has completed include “Hunting + Wildlife”, which features a similar style, but focuses on the subject matter of hunted turkeys and deer, with the use of red and brown tones. “Will + Testament” also features her unique layering stylization, but speaks to the destruction of coal mining businesses in the Appalachian region. I was most drawn to the “Contested Ground” series and this one piece in particular. All of these series have been features in multiple exhibitions: both solo and selected.

Carly Drew spent her time growing up in South Carolina’s mountains and her grandparent’s farm in western Pennsylvania, in the Appalachian region. She graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina with a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts in 2013. She has worked in both graphic designer and instructor positions and her works have been featured in several selected exhibitions, specifically ones focused on southern landscape. She also has achieved various awards and grants, including her most recent award: First Place, The Gun Show, Drawl Southern Contemporary Art (this is how I discovered her work).

Her artwork is about “the state of contemporary land policies, wildlife management and resource use in rural America,” and she hopes to raise awareness about such issues. When I began researching contemporary artists for this project, I knew that I wanted to use some sort of wet media (either watercolor and acrylic paint) with earthy tones. I traveled to Asheville, North Carolina one weekend this summer with my mom to look at local art festivals that were taking place. I fell in love with southern-style landscape paintings that are slightly abstract and with blue, green, and gold tones. Coming from the South (born in South Carolina but raised in Atlanta, Georgia), I grew up spending most of the year outside and hiking on the Appalachian Trail in North Georgia and North Carolina and am reminded of southern beauty by such paintings. So, I searched for southern contemporary artists and came across Carly Drew’s work. Her home page featured the piece I have chosen to replicate: “Contested Ground Series II,” and I was immediately drawn to it. For Fall Break this year, I spent a week in West Virginia serving the locals in construction work. There and in my seminar class, I learned about the effects of the waning coal-mining industry on the environment and on the lives of West Virginians living in this Appalachian region. So, I was extremely connected to this piece. The first thing that caught my eye was the overlaying light blue paint that seemed to connect the hay stiles and mining pieces to the roots and veins in the earth. I immediately caught on to the statement that Drew is making with this piece and I thought it would be a challenge for me but very fun to use various types of media (watercolor, acrylic, graphite, possibly ink) to replicate this piece. It reminds me of traveling through the Appalachian countryside and of the issues I have learned about in my Appalachian seminar class, and it also contains earthy tones in an abstract sort of landscape that I was striving to recreate for this particular assignment.

I created this piece with the same materials that this artist used, but on Rives heavy weight paper in order to sustain the wet media. The artist’s original piece was 34” x 48”, and I replicated this scale on 22” x 30” paper.