Carla Spence
“…every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.” – Henry Ward Beecher
Born in Holland in 1945 into an artistic family, I migrated to Australia at the age of six before eventually settling in the United States, where I have been based for over five decades. My early creative life was shaped by the influence of my father, a Bauhaus architect, whose disciplined approach to form and structure informed my initial representational work, with geometric restraints holding my intuitive work together.
For many years, while raising four children and traveling and living internationally with my husband during his career, my artistic practice remained intermittent. I maintained a strong engagement with the art world, teaching art in elementary schools and working as a corporate design consultant.
My painting journey began during our years in Italy from 1998 to 2001, where immersion in landscape, architecture, and light transformed my relationship with color and atmosphere. Workshops in Montreal and Houston further expanded my exploration of mood, drama, and abstraction through vibrant and often exaggerated color.
A profound turning point came when I lost vision in one eye. What began as a challenge became an awakening. As I adapted to visual distortion and depth shifts, I began working more intuitively, in a more primitive style, drawing from accumulated memories and impressions of Italy, the south of France, the American Southwest, and Australia. My work gradually moved toward abstraction while retaining a connection to the observable world, pushing boundaries without severing links to reality.
During my years in Houston, I received national and international recognition through the Watercolor Art Society of Houston, earning multiple awards and participating in a dynamic arts community.
In Bend, Oregon, I exhibited widely, including representation at Tumalo Art Company, as well as Jane Hamilton Fine Art in Tucson, Arizona, and Barbara Meikle Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My work was also showcased in numerous venues throughout Bend.
Now based in Santa Barbara, California, my focus centers on ocean landscapes and still life paintings, inspired by coastal light and the quiet drama of my garden and everyday objects. Recently, I was honored with a First Prize award at the Voice Gallery.