Hallock’s colorful paintings reflect state’s great outdoors
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An exotic and colorful flower, the Bird of Paradise, gives painter Carol Hallock the basic form and varied hues to all but dominate the group display in Elizabethan Gallery, 680 Jefferson Highway.
Paintings of the glamorous blossom present their natural splendor in the show, bringing a dominating splash of brilliant color to the gallery.
All of her paintings present the Louisiana outdoors, with tall tree trunks often creating a kind of border for the major scene, which frequently involves running water.
“Geraldine’s Adventure,” a strong earth-conscious painting which shows a big white bird flying over the flowing water, reflects the freedom and flight of Louisiana birds in the wild.
The high-flying water bird must indeed be Geraldine, a water bird who has set her sights on the unknown land across the bayou as she begins a flight from one side of the water to the other. It may not seem like a far distant flight, but the painting makes it plain that it is a true adventure for Geraldine, and the other side of the bayou seems as romantic and distant as any foreign country.
The trees and shrubbery in the paintings stamp the location firmly as Louisiana. Where else would you find oak trees of this stature, or lines of trees surrounded by shrubs distinctive to a certain location? Louisiana, of course.
The artist chooses the greenery because it is from her natural environment.
She paints the Louisiana outdoors because it is her home, her place in the world, and values it for its beauty of form and color.
When these trees show up in her paintings, they are part of her heritage, part of the state’s luxury of a magnificent outdoor environment.
There is a special virtue of painting something that is important to the artist. That personal quality seeps through and adds importance and meaning for everyone who sees the work of art.
Hallock makes certain that her paintings speak of Louisiana.
More than that, they speak of her culture, of her native countryside and her devotion to her home state. The tall trees and lush shrubbery are not just colorful material to frame her painting.
They are part of the expressive quality of Hallock’s work, part of her continued devotion to Louisiana, her home and the source of the inspiration that supports the artistic framework of her painting.
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