Carina Kramer
Germany
I am fascinated by wildlife. That seems quite obvious, but I really mean it!
Everything about those beautiful creatures from anatomy and behavior to the sounds they make captivates me.
In my artwork I am seeking to express that deep admiration and weave it into a sometimes delicate and sometimes rather painterly picture of what I see. My work is always realistic, so that my audience – yes, that´s you - can relate and get a glimpse of the marveling appreciation I find myself in.
When I paint wildlife, I feel like part of the wilderness rushes through me leaving me in an admiring, peaceful and curious mood. That process is often reflected in the style and the brushstrokes I use. Especially in my oil paintings there seem to be areas of painterly excitement and others, which I approached in a more gentle manner. My watercolors on the other hand require a very soft and patient attitude since they involve a lot of thin and delicate layers.
All this grew over several years of self-study beginning at the age of 8. By then I had just moved near a small nature reserve close to Hamburg, Germany, where I still live today. I started consuming art books and soon joined some casual painting lessons for about a year. After finishing school I plunged into art theory, which triggered a continuous learning curve (read more about that in my January 2019 blog post). This was also accompanied by some first successes as an emerging artist in the art world, such as winning the Hahnemühle calendar contest 2017 and being a finalist in both the renowned Wildlife Artist of the Year contest (2017 and 2018) and the esteemed Arc Salon (Art Renewal Center) in 2018. Becoming a member of the Artists for Conservation society - “the world´s leading artists group supporting the environment” - in May 2018 amplified my motivation to learn everything there is about wildlife to help protect it.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
