I paint plein-air on the Navajo Reservation to capture the inherent beauty of the land. My paintings share with people how I see Navajo land as more than trees and rocks, but as a natural beauty like it was hundreds of years ago. I can find places that Maynard Dixon and Edgar Payne painted as I drive over Mesas and down long canyons. I see compositions to paint at every turn and seasons that change colors and shadows.
Carol Benally grew up in Boston and began studying art at an early age. Her most memorable experience was going to the Elizabeth Gardner Museum where she would enjoy the Raphael's for hours on end. It was there that she discovered she had a passion for wanting to capture images on canvas
She began her studies at Montserrat College of Art and received her B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art. She painted pastels and oils for many years in New England, but the lure of the West captivated her curiosity to paint a variety of landscapes. She ventured to a workshop in New Mexico and found that the Southwest landscape had a palette of colors that were different from New England.
Carol has now lived on the Navajo Reservation for over twenty years and in that time has been down dirt roads that not many people have traveled. She steps back in time to days when Edgar Payne and Maynard Dixon traveled thoughout the Four Corners area. She paints plein-air to capture the place, time of day, colors, and then uses this sketch to create a stronger, more controlled painting. The style in which she paints conveys a strong sense of light and color in which she hopes will excite the viewer to wish they could have been there and see and feel "hozho" (which means beauty in Navajo). She spends as long looking for the right scene as it does to paint. Searching, seeing, and painting is a lifelong daily process.
As well as the Southwest, Carol travels back to the marshes and ocean of Massachusetts to embark on a new adventure in search of landscapes that describe the innate beauty of nature.
NEW!!! Carol Benally's Blog, "A Painting Life on the Navajo Reservation". click here
