Carol Bishop

CAROL BISHOP is an artist originally from Chicago who now resides in Los Angeles. The theme of place, past, present and future is explored in her artwork through images of landscape and architecture. She is particularly interested in the historical context of particular places. She explains, "In my work, whether my subject is painted as a clearly recognizable building or a non objective abstract image, it is based on a place, structure or a sense memory of some area that speaks to me."
CAROL BISHP is an artist originally from Chicago who now resides in Los Angeles. The theme of place, past, present and future is explored in her artwork through images of landscape and architecture. She is particularly interested in the historical context of particular places. She explains, "In my work, whether my subject is painted as a clearly recognizable building or a non objective abstract image, it is based on a place, structure or a sense memory of some area that speaks to me."

Naturalistic images of particular architecture are often found in her work, but large scale color fields are the images most often found in her paintings. Ms. Bishop is a recognized authority on the use of encaustic medium. Mixing natural and refined waxes into traditional oil mediums with powdered pigments and metals reflect historical methodologies (the ancient Greeks used encaustic on their marble sculptures and temples) but she uses this media in an updated contemporary context. "Each color plane within my paintings becomes a ground of energy because of the chemistry and brilliance of hand made paints. My intent is to allow the sensuality of surface to first engage the viewer. Layers of the specific places I’m appropriating or referencing are then engaged as poetic layers within the abstract forms."

Ms. Bishop has exhibited extensively in America and Europe. Her exhibit Fantome marks the first solo exhibition by a living American woman in the Louvre in Paris, France. She has had a number of solo exhibits in Burgundy, France and had a one person show at the English Foundation (Musee Adzak) in Paris. Her work has traveled to various locations in Germany and she will be exhibiting work in her solo show in Summer, 2005 in Krefeld. She was the 2001 "Celebrity Artist" for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, Oak Park. Ms. Bishop was the Sony Pictures artist for their 2001 per cent for art project in Culver City. She was selected for the 2003, Judy Chicago "Envisioning the Future Project." in Pomona, California, Her work is in a number of private collections. She is a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Woodbury University.