Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2

Todd Carpenter
"Searching for Sunrise" Oil painting

2020

About the Item

Todd Carpenter's (US based) "Searching for Sunrise" is an oil painting that depicts a black and white landscape with vast mountains and valleys echoing the swirling motion of the clouds overhead Bio/artist statement: Todd Carpenter is a Los Angeles based artist who uses black and white paint to explore the perception of space and beauty. Carpenter's formal education is in science - he holds a MS in Neuroscience from UCSD and a BS in Psychobiology from UCLA - and he brings this background into service when making art. His paintings explore the mechanisms of perception and aesthetics, examining among other things how the depiction of light can impart realism and convey emotion. Like his paintings bridging art and science, Carpenter's career has similarly straddled the two fields, and he has taught subjects ranging from neuroscience and environmental science to photography and painting. Artist Statement As a painter, I am particularly interested in how the depiction of light contributes to our experience of paintings. Painting, as with any visual art, is obviously dependent on light. But painting can also have a more specific connection in that the accurate depiction of light is crucial for achieving realism. Realism in paintings largely arises from the portrayal of depth - perceiving a painting as being realistic is equivalent to seeing its subject as existing in more than just the two dimensions of the picture plane - and one of the mechanisms by which humans perceive depth is through lighting cues. Light creates features such as shading, shadow, and contrast that tell us about the three-dimensional arrangement of our surroundings, and artists often use these features to impart realism to paintings. Light also factors in to the emotional impact of paintings. The differential illumination of our surroundings can evoke different moods, as evidenced by the influence sunsets, candlelight, and darkness can have on us. Such effectssuggest that our perception of light could be tied to primitive instincts, with light signaling factors such as shelter, nightfall, and warmth, which were once crucial for survival. The depiction of light in paintings can potentially tap into these primitive responses, to contribute to the emotional impact of the painted scene. One reason why I paint in grayscale is that it is suited for the portrayal of light. The lighting features that our brains use to perceive depth are based on color brightness rather than hue, and the parts of the brain that process depth work in black and white, separate from the areas that encode the colors and details we use to distinguish objects. By painting in grayscale I am attempting to interact specifically with this part our visual system, with the hope of imparting a degree of realism and perhaps even conveying some of the emotional significance that light can imbue. It is through light that we see the world, but light itself is also seen, with an impact independent of the subjects transmitted by its waves. Light is both the crisp contrast of a back-lit forest and the gray haze of an industrial landscape, and the perceptual power of light is what communicates the atmosphere of such places. This ability of light to effect us is the principle subject of my paintings.
  • Creator:
    Todd Carpenter
  • Creation Year:
    2020
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 6 in (15.24 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Denver, CO
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU130826893682

More From This Seller

View All
"Summer Garden" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Seth Winegar's (US based) "Summer Garden" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a rose bush with pink petals in the blue twilight and a small...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

"Inaccessible" by Todd Carpenter, Original Painting, Black & White Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
Todd Carpenter's (US based) "Inaccessible" is an oil painting that depicts a black and white landscape of dense trees and foliage with sunlight shimmering through. This piece is fram...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Starkness" by Todd Carpenter, Original Painting, Black & White Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
Todd Carpenter's (US based) "Starkness" is an oil painting that depicts a black and white landscape of dense trees and foliage with sunlight shimmering through. This piece is framed ...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"The Span" by Todd Carpenter, Original Painting, Black & White Cityscape
Located in Denver, CO
Todd Carpenter's (US based) "The Span" is an oil painting that depicts a black and white urban landscape of a towering downtown area. This piece is framed and ready to hang. Bio/ar...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Beneath the El 1, " Urban Scene in New York by Jim Beckner
By Jim Beckner
Located in Denver, CO
Jim Beckner's (US based) "Intersection" is an original, handmade oil painting depicting an urban scene below the El 1's tracks with patterned shadows. About the Artist: (Born 1970...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

"Crystallized" by Todd Carpenter, Original Painting, Black & White Mountain
Located in Denver, CO
Todd Carpenter's (US based) "Crystallized" is an oil painting that depicts a black and white landscape of soaring peaks. Bio/artist statement: Todd Carpenter is a Los Angeles based...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

You May Also Like

European urbanscape and river original oil on cardboard painting
By Josep Marfa Guarro
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Frameless. Josep Marfa Guarro (1928-2014) Josep Marfa Guarro was a Catalan painter specialized in landscape painting. Among Josep Marfa Guarro's work are numerous watercolors and ...
Category

1980s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

1900's Horses at the Trough
By William Lemos
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming mid century oil painting of two horses at watering trough by William M. Lemos, Santa Cruz and San Francisco artist (American, 1861-1942), circa 1900. Writing on verso is in ...
Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Cardboard, Oil

Brooklyn Bridge, New York
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
David Solot, a dentist and painter, was born in Falciu (Romania) and settled in Paris in 1928. His art was surrealistic dentally inspired plus portraits and city landscapes. **************************** Translated from an article by Luana Hrisanti Rigot: "In 1956, at the Charlotte Norberg Gallery (Paris), he presented his first personal exhibition, composed of an ensemble of surrealist paintings of professional inspiration (dental elements). Two years later, at Gallery Royale (Rochefort), he exhibits another 50 paintings on the subject. At that time, a decisive event for the painter David Solot was made: a great new-York-born antibiotic producer Lederle Cy learns about his work and contacts him through the US Ambassador to Paris, proposing an advertising contract and buying the reproduction right for 24 of its canvases. A year later, the same company bought the right to print three of its cloths in color. This was the starting point of his international notoriety. In 1959, the American Dental...
Category

1960s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Winter Cabin by Geri Eubanks, Petite Framed Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting
By Geri Eubanks
Located in Atlanta, GA
In Geri's own words: "My love for art began in my early teens when I signed up for art class in high school and soon discovered that I had a passion for drawing and oil. Growing up i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Gondolas At St Mark's, Venice and Casole D'elsa III Dyptich, Original paintings
By Lucy Pratt
Located in Deddington, GB
Gondolas At St Mark's, Venice is an original oil on board painting by artist Lucy Pratt. This painting features her beautiful and considered use of impressionist style mark making al...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Old White Barn II by Geri Eubanks, Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting
By Geri Eubanks
Located in Atlanta, GA
In Geri's own words: "My love for art began in my early teens when I signed up for art class in high school and soon discovered that I had a passion for drawing and oil. Growing up i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Recently Viewed

View All