24.05.2024
The Wonderful Worlds of Carol Fraser at the Roerich Estate
On Friday 24 May, an exhibition by artist Carol Fraser entitled "Shambhala - Land of Peace and Freedom" opened at the International Roerich Memorial Trust in Naggar.
Carol was born in England in 1939. Her first career was as a music teacher, but she found her calling in working with children from disadvantaged families. Not surprisingly, the opening of the exhibition began with a song sung by the artist herself, and the main guests at the event were two young girls, Khushbu and Jyoti, daughters of a close friend of Carol's, who have recently graduated from college and are just beginning their professional careers.
Carol's approach to creativity is largely spiritual, intuitive and synergetic. A whole canvas can begin with a single sound, colour, thought, feeling or sensation, a reflection on the fundamentals of existence and the structure of the worlds. This is why the artist, when talking about her paintings, has often remarked that even she does not know what is depicted on the painting. Her paintings represent an ongoing quest for understanding, an attempt to pierce the veil that separates the artist from the profound mysteries of the universe, and to transcend the boundaries between life and death.
The artist pays special attention to colour and its meaning. Colours are intertwined with sounds, with the special rhythm of the universe, with feeling and sensation. The exhibition presents a series of paintings, each of which, according to the artist's concept, represents a specific colour. The artist employs a diverse array of subject matter to convey distinct hues, each imbued with a unique emotional tone that is readily discernible by an observant viewer. Orange blazes on the other side of the gorge with the dawn of the sun that has not yet risen above the horizon. Green lurks in the foliage of the stately trees at the edge of the grove, which seem to be saturated with frosty freshness - the prana of the small transparent mountain stream beneath them. The soft yellow colour spills over the valley and fringes the calm mountain slopes, drawing their mighty silhouettes in different tones and shades of colours.
In Carol Fraser's work and philosophy, the enigmatic East – its spirituality, orientation towards inner experience and feelings, spontaneity – is inextricably linked with the thirst for knowledge, intellectualism and rationality of the West. At the centre of the room, surrounded by the artist's paintings, is a portrait of her spiritual Master, from whose philosophy Carol draws her inspiration for her paintings. The artist's father was a native of India. Her affinity with India and immersion in its culture and traditions led to Carol's fascination with philosophy and the spiritual traditions of both the East and the West, which in turn is reflected in her music and artwork.
The artist attaches particular importance to the deep blue colour. One of the paintings in the exhibition depicts a flower surrounded by a halo of transparent light - as if on the bank of a stream, symbolising the infinity of life. Carol lingers on the work for a few minutes. There is a deep philosophy behind the subject of the painting. The artist calls the work 'Flower of Immortality' and adds that the whole exhibition could be called that. We come into this world in search of immortality, and our creativity is a reflection of that search. Some of us come close to achieving immortality because the amount of love we have brought into this world is the degree of immortality we have achieved. The artist realised that her whole life was an attempt to touch the flower of immortality. In some moments she managed to get a little closer to this flower, and in other moments it seemed that she was infinitely far from it. The deep blue-violet tones of the painting reflect the high energy vibrations of the higher world.
In Carol's paintings, in addition to snow-capped peaks and mountain ranges, gorges, waterfalls, rivers and moonlight, there are many hidden doors leading to the very mystery of existence that the artist is trying to find and intuitively depict, to those higher worlds whose colours and radiance she is trying to convey in her paintings. In narrow mountain crevices, on the tops of mountain ranges - where crystal-clear waterfalls cascade down - in mysterious sublunar arches, at the confluence of two mountain ranges, in the very composition of the paintings, as if pointing the way to a secret other world hidden beyond the horizon - everywhere there are hidden mountain roads and paths leading to mysterious doors. This is where the artist invites the viewer.
Sometimes the artist herself cannot put into words what is depicted on her canvases. "In this painting," she says, "I simply tried to depict calm, to convey it to the viewer. You look at this painting and you feel calm and happy. That's the idea behind this painting, and it's realised in paintings like this." "What do you see in this painting?" - the artist asks the guests. "Let's think together" - with these words the journey into the wonderful worlds of Carol Fraser begins.
The visitors to the exhibition, in dialogue with the artist, shared their perception and understanding of her works and tried to unravel their secrets, immersing themselves in the world of mysterious, multidimensional - as if from other worlds - mountain landscapes, in the amber of sunlight, in the iridescent glow of the areola of the lunar disc, in the turquoise of rivers, lakes and waterfalls that mysteriously appear from nowhere, from some primary source, from nothingness, animating and enlivening everything around them and fitting into the plot of the works according to the laws of infinity and not the laws of the three-dimensional world.
A visit to Carol Fraser's exhibition is a pilgrimage into the world of profound images, resonant shades of colour, multi-dimensional realities - those mysterious doors to the world of higher energies where the existence of everything and everyone finds its meaning. And ultimately, it is a journey back to yourself.
