"The ponderous precision of color pencil artist Philip Carpenter"
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
In this latest collection of nine drawings by Atlanta based artist Philip Carpenter, the viewer is transported into entrancingly refined, color pencil depictions of toys and action figures. These works take rummaged through thrift store refuses and elevates each item with permanency and precision.
Carpenter’s deft hand and application of pigment through simple colored pencil is extraordinarily enriching and lush in pigment. His use of negative space to place each figure onto the paper plane seems to beckon and call for a further investigation into the reinvention, re-imagination, and reemergence of what most people would not look twice at.
There is an almost trompe l’oeil three dimensionality where the viewer is mesmerized not knowing where the color pencil begins and where it ends.
In ‘Ur Car’ (colored pencils 29 x 35 inches), Carpenter documents a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. Every piece of plastic on the car is wondrously cast in playful shades of air force blue, candied red, and sunshine yellow. The wheels are spectacularly documented with whimsy and care.
Beside ‘Ur Car’ is the head of a Halloween dinosaur mask entitled ‘Beastie’ (colored pencils 20 x 24 inches). Bumpy, scale-y tyrannosaurus skin is fully realized as each bump and wrinkle is fossilized in colored pencil with exquisite definition.
Caddy-corner is the compliment to ‘Ur Car’, the gleamingly red, yellow and blue ‘Tricolor Tricycle’ (colored pencils 25 x 28 inches) and ‘Robo Dog’ (colored pencils 20 x 20 inches). Carpenter brilliantly renders one singular plastic canine standing in attention. One can almost imagine an assembly line of robot dogs in a toy factory waiting to be fetched.
Around the corner is a vignette of four toy artworks hung together in a windowed quadrant:
‘The Donald’ (colored pencils 20 x 24 inches) a mischievously wander-some documentation of Donald Duck, posing beside ‘Robot’ (colored pencils 20 x 23 inches), a Fisher-Price Rescue Hero with a glowing rocky cannon perched behind its armored helmet.
Below ‘The Donald’ is ‘Clown Clones’ (colored pencils 24 x 20 inches) — two colorfully captivating roly-poly ‘magic man’ toys that seem to bounce off the paper in delight and merriment.
The final piece that completes the quadriptych is the most prescient and potentially political work, ‘Boy Toys’ (colored pencils 24 x 20 inches). The seemingly innocent dual toy guns are placed in a duel as ones’ barrel confront another’s grip.
We were all children once, playing with crayons and markers and colored pencils. It’s highly unlikely anyone has explored in depth the use of colored pencils with as much intensity and meticulousness as Carpenter in this body of work.
True art is transformative and allows for ponderances and reflection. From an adults' visage of child-like wonder, Philip’s work is healing and hopeful. Carpenter’s elevation of these toys in shades of sumptuous pigment and sparkling hues are precise as they are alluring.
PHILIP CARPENTER has made art and exhibited in Atlanta since 1978. He received a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts grant in1989 and was a Hambidge Fellow in 2001. Notable exhibitions include: The 1994 Atlanta Biennial at Nexus Contemporary Art Center; “Revival of the Figure” at City Gallery East in 1995; “Personal Circumstances” at Spruill Gallery in 2000; “Transitions” at MOCA GA in 2002; “Work and Play” at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 2005; “Primary Color” at Marcia Wood Gallery in 2005; “Manipulating the Commonplace” at Swan Coach House Gallery in 2007; 17th Color Pencil Society of America Exhibition in 2009 and 2015; “Play” at Spruill in 2009; “The Painted Photograph” at Southwest Arts Center; “40 over 40” at EBD4 in 2017. His work was exhibited in “Georgia Artists choose Georgia Artists” at MOCA GA and “Drawing Inside the Perimeter” at the High Museum of Art. His work is in private and public collections including the High Museum, MOCA GA, The Lagrange Museum, The Lamar Dodd Art Center at Lagrange College and Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. His work was included in the 2004 edition of “New American Paintings”