Portraiture Meets Imagination

Houston Carolyn Hancock wins top award

Portraiture meets imagination

The Pastel Society of Southeast Texas recently recognized the portrait art of Carolyn Hancock as being among the best in the nation. Renowned artist Jeannette Cuevas awarded First Place to Hancock’s painting No Voice. “The title defines women of the mid-1500’s, the Elizabethan age. They were not allowed an education, could not own property, and had no voice in the raising of their children. They were merely a wife and a mother,” states Hancock.

But it is the complexity of the composition that persuaded the juror. Hancock painted a glass façade in front of the woman, the glass reflecting to the viewer everything that the woman herself is seeing: the greenery of the castle gardens, the lake mirroring back the castle that holds her captive. The emotion of the woman is uncertain. Is she watching her children play? Is she lost in thought or maybe unspoken desires? Does she imagine her future life? Unknown for years, the white makeup used to create the ideal face of the time created its own danger.

Hancock exhibited a second painting in the exhibition, her award winning representation of Frida Kahlo, titled Waiting for Diego. These two paintings are included in Hancock’s innovative series, The Women – Curves of Emotion. The expressive portraits in the series are available for exhibition.

Hancock collaborated with five other Texas women artists to create a distinctive website of the finest visual art, https://artz6.com. The work is contemporary, allowing the land and sea to merge with people and interiors. The technique and skills of the six artists sing with a vision of excellence.

 “We wanted to offer a one-stop experience for art lovers, all within the natural beauty of realism. We paint realistically but each of us put our own twist on the art -- with color, mystery, emotion, and subjects,” states Hancock.