Art & Life with Carol Cottone-Kolthoff

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carol Cottone-Kolthoff.

Carol, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born and raised in San Pedro which is a pretty unique place in the Los Angeles area. It is a working seaport and it used to have huge tuna fishing fleet. Slavs, Italians and other ethnic populations settled in “Pedro” because of the fishing. I am from one of these fishing families. I grew up in an old section of town called “Vinegar Hill” in a house that is now over 100 years old. So early on, I developed a great appreciation for history and architecture.

I have been painting all my life and have taught art at the college and secondary levels for 35 years. After college, I did a lot of part time teaching all over Los Angeles and Orange County. This included the LA County Museum of Art and Marymount College. I also taught high school and did substitute teaching all over LA. Teaching in the inner City was a real eye opener and gave me a great appreciation for art education in a diverse student population.

In 1985 I met my husband, a naval officer and naval architect. All my Los Angeles plans went out the window when we got transferred to Monterey, CA. Not a bad place for an artist! I started working more and more with watercolor and doing a lot of landscape painting there since incredible scenery was everywhere! I also taught at Monterey Peninsula College. We were later transferred to San Diego, where we now live with our daughter and cats. Currently I teach with UCSD Extension and privately.

One of my paintings is actually at the Pentagon… After 9-11, I did an oil painting based on Naval imagery from San Diego’s Fleet Week Parade. One of our San Diego congress women, Susan Davis, saw the work and recommended it to be included in the Naval Art Collection in Washington DC. It is currently in the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel in the Pentagon.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I have been working in oil and watercolors for years and I have a traditional painting and drawing background from California State University at Long Beach where I got my BFA and MFA in 1980. I have been influenced by artists like Edward Hopper and the California Regionalists, however the imagery of my home town, San Pedro, California, has shaped my work from the very beginning.

I started as an oil painter but taught myself watercolor since it was much easier to take to the beach! Watercolor was and is, rarely taught at the college level as a serious medium. I use watercolor much in the way I use oils; that is, I try to achieve a high degree of realism, by using a layering process. It might take me three or four applications of color to achieve the rich color and development of realistic form I strive for. I drift back and forth between oil and watercolor. Some imagery seems to work better in one medium than the other.

I am currently doing a new series of paintings based on San Pedro. I had painted the Town when I lived there, but moving away and time has allowed me the separation I needed to see this place with fresh eyes. There is a historical and aesthetic aspect to it which I find appealing. The architecture, coastal scenery, and harbor are unescapable and lend themselves perfectly to my work. My intention is to capture the scenery, memories and unique spirit of San Pedro and reflect it through my painting.

My goal is to have an exhibition of this series, in San Pedro in the next year or two. The location of the exhibition has not yet been determined.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
I will approach this question from my observations as a college teacher: I find that students come to me with a deficit of basic skills like life drawing, basic drawing, and understanding perspective. These are critical skills, even for the most abstract of painters and artists in general, because it trains the eye and the brain to work in concord. I find more and more that students in colleges are not taught these skills and jump to conceptual art way before they are ready. Sure, some of these skills can be obtained by computed aided means, but there is nothing like the relationship to the pencil and the brain, to teach these fundamentals.

The next thing, is that you are a work in progress. Learning art doesn’t stop when you are done with college. It is a lifetime of devotion and hard work. But you do not have to be a 100% full time artist to do art seriously. That is why I went into teaching… I needed a reliable job.

I think success as an artist comes from working and developing your God given talent, and not letting it grow stale or rusty. That takes devotion.

I used to think success was measured in winning awards and in competitions. But that definition has changed for me. If I like a painting I did and feel I have put my heart and technical ability into it, that is success. If someone else likes my work, and finds joy in it, that too is success. I feel now, that our talents are for us to share with others. If I teach somebody a painting technique, for example, and it gives them a little joy or increases their proficiency and improves their life in some way, then I am a success.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am an active member of The San Diego Watercolor Society and The San Diego Museum of Art Artist’s Guild.

The best place to see my paintings is on my online Gallery site at www.cottoneart.com

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cottoneart.com
• Email: ccottoneart@aol.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cottonekolthoff/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolCottoneKolthoffArt/

Image Credit:
All photos and images are property of myself, Carol Cottone-Kolthoff @2018

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