Our latest Welcome To Sanford Artist of the Week is Sanford’s Carolyn Chipman. A popular area painter with an inspirational story, her areas of focus include landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and figuratives. Carolyn’s work has been featured in galleries, as well as other public and private settings. She has also participated in several workshops and classes over the years, as a means of sharpening her craft and learning new techniques.
Carolyn began taking up painting shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She describes that life-changing experience as a wake-up call that emphatically led her to the world of art. She comments, “I didn’t seriously take up painting until after my treatment for cancer, and at first it was a stress-reliever. I never knew art lived inside me, and maybe it didn’t always. My art comes from deep inside me, and I hope you feel that when you see my work. My desire is that my art will tug at your heart until you just have to smile and then that you will pass that smile on to others.”
Carolyn has been a long-standing member and active participant in the Sanford Brush & Palette Club, where she has served on committees and been a multiple-time recipient of awards at the club’s annual art show. Among her many celebrated works is these next two pictures, which received prizes in 2011 and 2012 shows respectively.
With the benefit of distance and perspective, Carolyn has come to believe that her health challenges has also held its share of blessings, noting “For me, worse than death would be not to have fully lived this life I’ve been given. It is my hope that on the day I leave this earth, I will have used up all the talent God has given me. Life is short; do something each day that makes you happy. My goal in painting is to tell a story, my story, and for the viewer to see his or her story, to bring smiles to the viewer’s face, to take viewers to places they have never been. Art preserves history.”
To see more of Carolyn’s work, please visit her website at carolynchipman.com. You can also contact Carolyn via her online contact form and sign up for her newsletter.
Artist of the Week is a feature that is devoted to Sanford’s dynamic arts community and the hundreds of talented individuals who are a part of it. Painters — potters — performing artists — musicians and much more! If you, or someone you know, is deserving of recognition, please click here, or on the Artist of Week badge and fill out a nomination document.