Carol Patricia Paquet, a multi-disciplinary artist, reimagines the traditional nature morte through a contemporary lens. Employing photography, digital collage, and paint, she captures the plant life cycle, placing fragmented botanical elements within vividly colored, liminal spaces that echo her South African roots.
A student of William Kentridge in printmaking, Paquet creates with bold graphic sensibility. Dispersing photomontage into a seductive matrix: screen-like ephemera and lush passages of paint remix in canvases that recall the nature morte /still life paintings of the Dutch masters.
Willow Pond, adjacent to her studio in the rural central coast of California, is the site of inspiration for Paquet. Her botanical landscapes, imbued with a sense of displacement, bridge digital and plein air research. The seasonal transformation of plant life, including cycles of decay, decomposition, growth, and renewal, become, in her work, scenes of both strangeness and homecoming.
Her work has been shown at Monterey Museum of Art, CA, The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, CA, The Anne Foxworthy Gallery, Hancock College, CA, Galerie im Hafen Rummelsburg, Berlin Germany, The Founders Hall Art Gallery, Soka University, CA, The Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Westmont College, 40th Anniversary Designer Showcase, San Francisco, CA, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, CA.
