The Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk is set for April 4, 6-8pm, at venues all over town.
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From left, “Ordinary Everyday Oak Tree,” “Cobra” and “Gypsy Jazz” by Carol Duchamp. Courtesy images.

PictureCarol Duchamp. Courtesy image.

Renowned artist Claudia Chapline has said that Bolinas artist Carol Duchamp’s work “is like a jazz riff on a melody of color that starts with a single long stroke. Sensitive to the energy of the moment, she follows the cues of the colors’ movements with spontaneity. Abstract expressionism hasn’t been this happy since Sam Francis!”

If you’re in the mood to “clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,” you won’t find a better place to do so than the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), where Duchamp will be showcasing her boldly colored “Poetics of the Invisible” work throughout April, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on April 4, 6-8pm (GO HERE for a full list of artists and venues).

Duchamp, a Midwest native who migrated to Berkeley via France and New York City in the late 1970s1976 and has lived in Bolinas since 1980, has been exhibiting her paintings in the Bay Area in 1993.  

Best known for her vibrant colors and fluid abstract compositions in the mediums of acrylic and watercolor, Duchamp says her paintings are “an aesthetic exploration of color, space and fluidity.”

“They are rich in color, lushly saturated, sensual in form, and have been described as ‘cosmic, flowing and full of light,’” she adds.

Duchamp describes painting in her studio as “a bit like a trance dance,” and when she returns to the studio the next day, she tried to comprehend “the state of being, the inspiration that embedded itself in the painting the day before,” she says. “I can see clearly that the feeling tone of an experience, whether a trail walk through the redwoods on Mt. Tamalpais near where I live or a sense memory of drift snorkeling in French Polynesia or a feeling of sadness/loss/maybe anger has made its way into the painting and graced it with meaning and the promise of intimacy with what is.”

Duchamp has been teaching outdoor painting classes in the U.S. and abroad for 20 years, encouraging experimentation and self-discovery in a supportive environment that nourishes the intuitive power of self-expression.

Duchamp is founder and director of Art Trek, which orchestrates travel study art classes to destinations such as France, French Polynesia, Italy, the American Southwest and Bali and Java, Indonesia.

The 411: Bolinas artist Carol Duchamp shows her “Poetics of the Invisible” work throughout April, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on April 4, 6-8pm (GO HERE for a full list of artists and venues). ​



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