Willam Carroll’s newest painting series titled Trees has found a nice place to debut in 57w57arts. Each artist has their own room within the gallery space, the other artists include: Michael Voss, Steph Krawchuk, Seth Dembar, and Christopher Boyne. The rooms are also active office spaces where employees and clientele enjoy the work during appointments. Carroll’s series of seven new paintings on wood panels find themselves in the waiting room, stoically standing alongside a wonderful view of the New York Public library right outside of a nearby office window. Seeing the work within this space, especially it being a waiting room, allows viewers an opportunity for quiet contemplation, a foil to the hustle and bustle of what is right outside. You begin to feel as if you are journeying through the forest on a silent winter day.
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Becoming a bit a flaneur, or a walker in the city, Carroll started depicting buildings years ago, using the same process, to chronicle city buildings and other structures such as bridges and water towers that interested him in dawn and dusk, and now with trees, he continues this diary of sorts, chronicling of the trees of New York, their history and the places and parks he walks through. Carroll walks everywhere, enjoying the city, and he always brings a pen and paper with him. These walks often include journeys to parks in the East Village, the Bronx, Wave Hill, and within the larger parks of the city, such as Central Park. His sketches of simple black ballpoint are later turned into paintings from the ink line drawings, gestures, the essence of the image.
Carroll has a great interest in the older trees within the city and the history behind them; he loves their presence and form, many of which emerge in these paintings. He mentioned he used to follow a list the city used to publish years ago, noting locations of important trees within the boroughs, and his quest to see them all. This journey evolved into this new series, where spontaneity, intuition, and memory meld into these paintings.
His sketching starts from the initial view and experience of the tree and takes it back to the studio to work with it and change it until he feels it fits. This part of the practice turns into his memory of the tree, where branches are added or taken away, and textured paint strokes are built up as inTree (tbd I). The compositions of all the pieces are consistent, the main tree in the foreground, a starker dark grey, while other background trees follow suit, as lighter grey shadows emerging from the distance.
His paintings focus on shape and color to elicit a calm, wintery atmosphere. The light greys and black washes of paint leave behind a light texture that resembles that of both the artist’s hand and the tree’s bark, letting light pass through the layers of paint at various points. The artist’s hand and texture show through to bring these pieces on panel to life within the gallery space.
Getting to experience these pieces within a peaceful moment, sitting in one of the comfortable chairs within the room, offered me the opportunity to reflect on how Carroll might have viewed the trees, and how the works settle onto the walls both calmly and serenely. This opportunity of quiet contemplation and stillness within the work comes from Carroll’s process in creating the pieces. The work is plein aire-esque; he starts off the vision or experience of the piece based off of walks he takes in the early mornings, when barely anyone is awake and everything is still and silent. The sun has often barely risen, and the details of the day have yet to begin.
Carroll’s focus on trees as “a natural and essential part of the city” and the ways they take shape and overlap allows the viewer to also notice them. Actually taking time to notice something that we may just simply pass by on our own walks through the city. By experiencing these works within this space and taking the time to learn about Carroll’s process, I have found myself taking time to notice the small details within the city, and all of the different trees that exist throughout this urban jungle.
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William Carroll, Trees, At 57w57Arts
April 13th – May 16th ,501 5th Ave, Suite 701, New York, NY, 10017 @57w57arts
About the Writer: Taylor Bielecki lives in Gowanus, where her studio is, and works at Pratt Institute, where she earned her MFA, she also studied at Penn State, where she earned a BA in English and a BFA in Fine Arts. She finished as a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s VSA National Emerging Young Artist program for 2017; where she earned an award of Excellence. She has shown prints internationally in a print exchange in Australia and exhibitions in Dubai, India and the Glasgow School of Art. She has also shown paintings internationally in Gallery 24N, PhilaMOCA’s juried exhibitions in Philadelphia, Pa., Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack, NY, BWAC in Red Hook, and Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn. Taylor has joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer.