Culture & Entertainment Notebook: Caroline Thompson paints with 'mad-crazy' abstraction

Caroline Thompson is passionate about painting, teaching and cooking, and since moving to Cape Girardeau last year, her love for art has blossomed into her next big opportunity: Caroline Thompson Studio & Gallery.

Thompson -- abstract impressionist oil painter -- began her career in 1999 after attending a 4-series art workshop she wasn't necessarily excited about.

But that day, Thompson, a Kennett, Missouri, native, said while holding back tears at her home studio Tuesday, she knew she would "never not paint any time in my life."

What first attracted her to oil paint, she said, was "the color, and the drama and the motion that was there."

Thompson's art has carried her through multiple life changes -- and art exhibits -- in Colorado, Tennessee and now Southeast Missouri. She also began teaching. Though at first reluctant, she said teaching art changed her life.

Local artist Caroline Thompson poses for a portrait Tuesday at her home in Cape Girardeau. "I am driven to paint," she said. The painter got her start in the craft in 1999.

"I just finished my first winter workshop series here in Cape, and all four classes were full," she said. "I think everyone really enjoyed it. I'm going to start April 1 at Crisp Museum in the (Southeast) River Campus, teaching three sessions."

Her home-based Caroline Thompson Studio & Gallery will open with the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri First Friday event May 3, with help from her husband, George.

Thompson said it will display her latest oil paintings along with several guest artists from the region, including Ste. Genevieve, Sikeston and Cape Girardeau.

And, she added, each First Friday event at her studio will include her homemade Spanish Paella.

With more than 160 patrons across the country and many of them owning multiple pieces of her work, Thompson said she is "very fortunate."

Art supplies of local artist Caroline Thompson, originally of Kennett, Missouri, and now Cape Girardeau, seen in Thompson's workspace Tuesday, March 19, 2019, in Cape Girardeau. I am driven to paint, she said. The painter got her start in the craft in 1999.Jacob Wiegand ~ jwiegand@semissourian.com

Standing before a piece she had just finished, Thompson said she was "just crazy about it."

"Sometimes things start getting a little tight for me, and I love the tightness of it," she said of the yellow and pink shapes, "but I also love the 'mad-crazy' abstraction that flows on its own."

Thompson said she believes everyone has creativity within, and "it's just bursting to get out."

And once the expression starts, she said, you never feel satisfied if you're not doing it.

Oil painting is Thompson's main outlet, she said, adding cooking is the runner-up.

Ever since she "got the bug," Thompson said she is unable to slow down.

"My first painting was a rooster, and I still have it. But, I always was gravitating toward abstraction," she said. "I painted big, huge flowers, landscapes, women's and children's faces, which I love to do."

Thompson said, "And it just feels so right. I feel like I'm out of a cage."

She said sometimes people think abstraction is easy because it "just happens," but it's the most difficult form of making art she's ever tackled.

"I don't have an image to look at to start from; I have to create it as I go," she said.

One of Thompson's go-to techniques is softening the edges of her paintings with dry brushes, and contrasting that against hard lines.

"Hard edges and soft edges play well together," Thompson said, "but if I use hard edges, there's a lot of palette knife. I like the juxtaposition of the hard and the soft."

Her favorite colors to work with include turquoise, pinks, yellows, and oranges.

She doesn't care much for blue, purple or green. But, she uses those three colors to create other shades, acquiring "subtly" within each piece, Thompson said.

Thompson creates in series, she said, pointing out a couple of finished pieces featuring an exaggerated use of bubbles. Painting in a series is a learning process, she explained.

"It's very satisfying, and that's what art's about," she said.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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