Carol Peek - Simple Beauty - Summer 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Carol Peek - Simple Beauty

by Helen Ranta

June Grazing – Oil on linen by Carol Peek
Something as simple as a shadow falling across a meadow can inspire artist Carol Peek. The late afternoon light, Peek’s favorite time of day when the air is clear, permeates her pastoral scenes and landscapes that are often decorated with images of Holsteins, Herefords, Black Angus, and Paint horses.

“Light inspires me,” states Peek. “I find myself excited and inspired by shadows and color. After I learned to see color, in art school, I found the world even more incredibly beautiful and interesting.”

Carol Peek attended the University of California in Santa Barbara and Berkeley and graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She started painting professionally very early in life and for a short time was a painter for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri. She returned to where she was born and raised, Marin County in Northern California, to become a full-time painter of the California landscapes that still appear in her work.

Motivation for painting comes easily as Peek finds herself thinking about the next piece even before she has finished the current one. “When I begin a painting, I have already thought about the size and shape of the canvas. I draw with thin paint – lots of thinner so I can easily change the drawing if I need to. When the drawing is sound, I move to thicker paint.”

Paint Horse – Oil on linen by Carol Peek.

Titles for her paintings are straightforward with brevity – Paint Colt, Brown and White, June Grazing. Peek does not want the title to get in the way of the pureness of simply viewing or lead the viewer to a place, nor take away from their personal experience of the picture. Peek explains, “My intent for the viewer is to bring to them the sense of beauty and inspiration I felt as I saw the scene myself. I hope to expand their experience of the world by helping them to see something they haven’t seen before; like the simple beauty of skylight reflected on a horses back or the way the sunlight falls upon a Paint colt.”

With horses peacefully grazing and other ranch genre impressions interpreted with a measure of optimism and affection, Carol Peek assures the viewer all is well with the world. She comments, “I followed my heart at an early age and did not let fear from others sway me from this path. I hope others will benefit from my contribution, feel motivated or uplifted because of what I do. I hope to leave this world a better place having improved or positively influenced someone’s life through my art.”

Carol Peek Lives in Utah with her two children. She is represented by the North Point Gallery in San Fransco and The Red Piano in Hilton Head, South Carolina. She is a full member of the American Academy of Equine Art. Visit her web site at www.carolpeek.com.

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