What Vincent? by Carolyn Watson.

Carolyn Watson Born in Wagga Wagga,Australia. Carolyn attended the College Of Art at Morningside, she is working in Brisbane and has developed her artistic talents in many directions.

Brought up by a house wife and a labourer Carolyn feels she has both feet firmly planted on the ground. Her large scale art work looks at the choices we make in our artistic lives and how hard artists struggle if they wish to maintain individuality, integrity and autonomy.

"My experience as an art student taught me to have a tough skin. It taught me to know what I didn't want out of my work. It taught me about how I wouldn't teach. It brought the best out of me -but- left me emotionally drained. This may sound harsh. I know it did a lot for me, yet I know I did it the hard way. Now I have the control over my work. It may not be accurate (realistic) but I do have the chance to construct my own methodology. It was a very good training ground, but now I am grateful to be able to re-develop a love for painting."

They were forever asking me "Why are you still painting when painting is dead?"

I smiled quietly and thought maybe you should have said... "just because I can."

The struggle that Carolyn describes is often referred to as "Being caught up in the art game, game." To be successful at an art college artists often have to please others, lecturers, the public and deal with media attention. "To get by we write justifications and in doing that can be caught up in the process of proving ourselves so much that the creative work suffers and sometimes nearly disappears altogether. We can often lose ourselves and forget why we paint at all."

For Carolyn art is not about inventing something new.. a new style.. a new idea. It is about exposing her struggle to her audience in the hope of stimulating a response.. a dialogue. "I want to know what you are thinking.. to hear the response that you have. Too many paintings are an attempt to dictate to the viewer what they will see. Particular subject matter is presented to the viewer who is expected to respond a predetermined way. " The painting "What Vincent?" Is a very well executed painting in the Chiaroscuro Style In a humorous way Carolyn dialogues with Vincent Van Gogh asking him "What were you trying to say Vincent? and what were you trying to do?"

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