Carolyn is a creative that has been involved in some form of art all her life. Her degree is in Fashion Merchandising and she worked in retail, becoming a buyer for a women’s clothing chain in Chicago. After her children came along, she switched to a more family-friendly career in marketing. Upon moving to North Carolina, she opened her own successful marketing agency that assisted many local businesses in branding and visibility. Once retired, she began to seriously pursue acrylic abstract painting. She took workshops and virtual courses to gain new skills and focused most of her time on her art.
Carolyn’s paintings are stylized and minimal, accenting the interplay of light and water. She credits her approach to a childhood memory:
“My parents were from Miami. After World War II, my father got a job in rainy and cold Cleveland, Ohio. Whenever we had a sunny day, my mom would say, “That’s a Miami sky.” She taught me to appreciate sunrises and sunsets — always emphasizing the beauty of sky and water. I want people who see my paintings to sense that same beauty and calm.”
Carolyn focuses on the scenery that she enjoys, using photographs taken on her walks as inspiration. “Our move from the hustle and bustle of Chicago to the serenity of central North Carolina has been a big influence on my art. I am constantly inspired by the quiet calm of green fields and bright blue skies, the breathtaking vistas of the mountains, and my favorite, the rolling waves of the Atlantic,” she notes. From her fashion marketing background, she is acutely aware of color and shape. Abstraction comes to her naturally.
Her painting Tears of the Sunwas selected for the August 2020 cover of Genetics in Medicineand her series of 8 small works entitled Sea Movementwere exhibited at The Halle Cultural Arts Center in Apexin 2020.Her work can be viewed and purchased online at www.carolynrhinebarger.com.
Visitors to Carolyn Rhinebarger’s north Chatham studio will personally experience her unique esthetic. “I hope that people will just stop, take a breath and enjoy the calm.”
