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Carole Coy Richardson and her art
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Watercolorist Resides in Alumni Affairs
By Michelle Nery
Carole Richardson, the Alumni Affairs office manager, is also an award-winning
watercolorist. “I’ve always painted. I started getting noticed in grade
school,” says Richardson, who is self-taught. In her off hours, Richardson
creates vivid, realistic landscapes and still lifes, which she exhibits in local,
juried art shows throughout the year.
This past fall she tied for the Equal Merit Award at a local guild show. Her
winning painting, titled Peppered Shadows, is a still life depiction of
brightly colored peppers. She started the painting two years ago but hesitated
to finish it after she created what she thought were perfect peppers. She finally
completed the painting when an entry was needed for an upcoming show. Peppered
Shadows sold shortly thereafter.
Richardson has also won several awards for her close-up portrayals of tropical
flora. Naples Native, for example, won Best of Show in one competition and an
Equal Merit Award in another. “I would like to do more of the tropical larger
paintings,” says Richardson. “I seem to relate to them somehow.”
Her large paintings sometimes take more than 30 hours to complete. Richardson
begins the process by taking numerous pictures of her subjects, developing the
composition through the camera lens. “I start with the photograph. I then
make a sketch on transfer paper before applying it to watercolor paper,”
Richardson says. She recently traveled to Sanibel Island to gather subject matter.
Smaller paintings are often created from memory in less time. Her smaller framed
paintings have become so popular that she can’t paint enough of them. She
came upon these smaller creations while recovering from surgery for carpal tunnel
syndrome. When she realized she had no paintings to enter in an upcoming show,
Richardson purchased frames composed of glass plates with dried flowers pressed
between them. She then painted a representation of the flowers inside the frame.
Richardson continues to use these small frames for inspiration, as in a seashell-clad
frame with a lighthouse painted inside. “The smaller paintings are a popular
choice for gifts,” Richardson says, “so I have to paint furiously to
keep up with the demand.”
Unlike most watercolor paintings, Richardson’s are strong and vibrant
with hard lines and bright colors. She achieves this effect by building up layers
of color until the desired brilliance is achieved. One painting of a magnolia
flower needed 30 washes of red, yellow, and blue to attain the desired shadowing
of the soft white petals. Although watercolor is her medium of choice, she has
also created award-winning pastels. Richardson, who signs her work “Carole
Coy,” also has a proprietary line of hand-painted greeting and note cards.
Richardson received an honorable mention for one of her paintings in late November
at the Vienna Arts Society show judged by Frank Wright, professor of drawing and
graphic design at George Washington University. Out of 400 paintings, 154 were
selected as finalists, and 11 were given awards. In addition, two of Richardson’s
paintings have been selected for an exhibit titled “Four Seasons of Oatlands”
at the Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va.
Several years of acupuncture and two surgeries have alleviated the carpal tunnel
syndrome in both her hands, and Richardson continues to paint. Although she finds
particular satisfaction in creating desert and tropical scenes, her goal is to
continue painting diverse subjects. She also plans to continue attending workshops
and art classes taught by distinguished artists to further master her medium.
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