Carol McHarg

Carol McHarg - Painting


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1. Home Sweet Home in McMansionville, 2005, mixed      media, 47” x 72”
2. Design Versus Nature, 2005, mixed media, 42” x 68”
3. Highway Engineers Forge the Pangaea Breakup, 2005,      acrylic, 59” x 36”
4. Cut and Fill, 2005, acrylic, 32” x 40”
5. Lawlor’s Highway Plan for Bangkok, 2003, mixed      media, 36” x 60”
6. The First Construction Road, 2006, mixed media,
      45” x 30”
7. Crack in the Grading Plan, 2003, acrylic, 66” x 36”
8. Design with Nature, 2003, mixed media, 66” x 40”
9. Route Selection in a Graben Zone, 2005, acrylic,
     48” x 36”
10. Road to the Mantle via a Diatreme, 2005, mixed        media, 48” x 30”
11. Country Roads, 2006, acrylic and blacktop, 20” x 35”
12. Messy Intersection, 2005, acrylic and blacktop,
       30” x 18”
13. Concrete Trees, 2006, mixed media, 30” x 18”
14. Retreat from Intelligent Design, diptych left panel,        2006, acrylic, 14” x 15”
15. Retreat from Intelligent Design, diptych right panel,        2006, acrylic, 14” x 15”

Artist Statement
My recent paintings address two powerful forces that shape the global environment – geology and modern engineering/land development.

These works reflect my background as a landscape architect and employ my knowledge of ecology, design, cartography and of the impact of designers and developers who disregard the forces of the natural world.

This narrative is embodied not only in the subject matter, but also in the style and materiality of my work. I combine symbolism with reality, perspective with flatness and an exaggerated configuration of nature overlaid with an artificial reconfiguration of the landscape.

In 1982 I wrote a book titled Nature’s Design in which I explained how to design successful and fitting landscape environments using the principles and forces of nature. This series of paintings might well be titled “Design Without Nature”.

About Carol McHarg

Contact Information
PO Box 778
Unionville, PA 19375
tel: 610-347-0311
e-mail: csmcharg@hotmail.com
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.

Artist Bio
Carol S. McHarg has a studio in Philadelphia near Washington Square and commutes to New York weekly to teach landscape design at Columbia University. She has had exhibitions worldwide including those at Brad Cooper Gallery, Florida and The Pennsylvania Academy of fine Arts, Philadelphia. Her work is in several collections in Italy and the U.S. She is the author of the best selling book Nature’s Design, published by Rodale Press, in which she explained how to design with nature.

The recent works of Carol McHarg push the boundaries of contemporary landscape painting. She expresses her history and ideology as a Landscape Architect and at the same time moves the history of art onto a new plane. These powerful paintings look at ecology, design, cartography and the impacts of engineers and designers to question what is natural and what is not.

This narrative is embodied not only in the subject matter, but also in the style and materiality of the work. The artist combines symbolism with reality, perspective with flatness and an exaggerated configuration of nature overlaid with an artificial reconfiguration of the landscape. She questions what is natural and what is man made in the world at large and in the painting itself.

Peter Reed, Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at The Museum of Modern Art states, “Carol’s work provides a provocative commentary on the subject of contemporary landscape.” Osvaldo Romberg, world-renowned artist, says her striking landscapes are beautiful without being decorative, inventive and also painterly. He refers to her work as “indefinable.”

Professional Experience
1990-present
Artist, Unionville, PA

2005-present
Landscape Design Studio Master, Columbia University,New York, NY

2002-2004
Program Leader/Professor, Penn State University Department of Landscape Architecture, Rome, Italy

1995-1996
Adjunct Professor, Temple University Department of Landscape Architecture, Ambler, PA

1980-2000
McHarg Landscape Architects, Unionville, PA

Collections/Commissions
Mr. and Mrs. James Blaine, Mt. Desert, ME
Ms. Joan Colin Carpenter, Rome, Italy
Mr. and Mrs. Marcello Cicchinelli, Rome, Italy
Mr. Corradino Colaci, Lecci, Puglia, Italy
Mr. and Mrs. Luciano Lazzarini, Rome, Italy
Ms. Kim Matthews, Boulder, CO
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Roberts, Philadelphia, PA
Mr. Henry Thomas, Princeton, NJ

Selected Exhibitions

2006
Digitations 2006, ARTROM Gallery, Rome, Italy

The Post Modern Landscape, Brad Cooper Gallery, Tampa, FL

Just Paint, ARTROM Gallery, Online Exhibition
Juried Exhibition
Finalist

The National Arts Club, Online Exhibition

Through the Eyes of Women, Rome, Italy

2004
The Supper Club, Rome, Italy

2002
The White Box, Philadelphia, PA

1999
Alumni Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition

1997
SAS Student Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

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