Individuality Versus the Whole

Each painting by Carter Wentworth is its own entity -- a complete story -- but as the pieces lay side-by-side, there are a series of patterns, layers, and details waiting to be unpacked by the eye. This is where the fun begins. By looking more, we begin to forge personal associations with certain patterns and colors that lift off the paper and piece together the conversation Carter once had with nature.

Carter Wentworth is a mixed media artist and works with water based paints, primarily British pigments, on thick cotton-based paper.  Carter says that for him, “painting is a process of discovery. It’s not premeditated, but a reaction to the first mark I make upon the paper. I remain aware of the edges, and the painting becomes an excerpt of a larger imagined space.” Living in Marblehead, Massachusetts and tending to his expansive gardens, Wentworth lets the garden inform his painting and vice versa.

In a recent conversation, I asked Carter what he thought of his “Vertical or Seed Series,” available at 530 Burns Gallery, looking back on its years of development and progression. Wentworth emailed me, “I do the small pieces to stand on their own, but I am sure that they suggest directions to take {for the larger work}. I also see reviewing the work of three years ago that several series are repeated within the small paintings. I think that there is a double circle series about to emerge {in the new work}.”

Though abstract, the pieces meticulously record a narrative which passes through the lens of his subconscious mind. Take “Crossing Two Oceans:” elongated curved lines flow with short wisps of orange pigment. Then, layered on top are muted, translucent yellow vines that bring the eye around the piece like a road map to unlock the water’s purest moments and diverse life forms. Again, looking at “Night Plankton,” we see the use of layers. The level in the forefront creates windows and individual vignettes to explore into a new tier, texture, or color. Both tell an individual tale but the repetition of curves is used to emphasize the piece’s verticality.

Carter utilizes the same vertical proportions in “Untitled #6 seed series.” Bursting with bold color, the painting becomes a chatty conversation between three pinnacle elements to any painting: color, line, and shape. As in controlled chaos, a mix of seeds and abstracted forms has sprouted into a diverse ecosystem. Juxtaposing contrast colors of cobalt blue to tangerine orange and leaf motifs to oval buds, the painting seems ready to flower. From from his personal garden to Florida's oceanscape, Wentworth captures a specific, life-giving moment. Notably, you will not find a harsh, jagged line in his work. Rather, the emphasis is on the whirling of curves and the awareness of nature’s interconnectivity.

So, Carter paints the story. With a nod to reality, his imagination and creativity fall on our shoulders, and we are invited to explore and forge a personal relationship with the work. I now ask you to continue the dialogue with this openended question: where does Carter Wentworth’s work take you?