Carol Tarzier is both painter and sculptor. Her career began with drawing and with sculpture in bronze. Awards for sculpture include the John Cavanaugh Memorial Award for Figurative Sculpture, awards from the National Sculpture Society including the Roger T. Williams Prize, Alex J. Ettl Grant, the Gold Medal and the Maurice B. Hexter Prize, and the Bosque Conservatory Art Council’s Silver Medal. From 1998 though 2002, she focused on commissioned sculptures, with a memorial to C.L. Dellums for the City of Oakland’s Amtrak station, and a life-size statue of George Hasslein, Dean of the College of Architecture, at CalPoly State University. Over the last years she returned to an early love, oil painting. Her paintings have been represented in national shows including the Oil Painters of America Regional Exhibition and at the California Art Club’s Gold Medal Show over the last ten years. Carol has received numerous awards at Plein Air events including the Best Collection award at the Mendocino Open Paint out in 2022 and 2023.
Carol’s paintings focus on light: through the clouds, reflections on water, and on the colors of fruit and flowers and the metal and glass reflecting them. Her favorite time for Plein Air painting is early evening. Her paintings capture the light on the California coastline and bays. Her still lifes glow; brass, copper and glass show the light and reflect the color around them. She is honored to paint a coastline as beautiful as California’s, and finds depth in simple objects.
