Carmen Kerl

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I found my passion for acrylic pouring later in life. Even though I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting as a child, I never pursued it in my adult life until I was in my forties! 

When we were staging a home for sale a few year back, we needed some art to hang on the walls, and I explored youtube for inspiration. I was truly mind blown to see so much creativity and talent online and accessible for everyone nowadays. My husband actually, in full support of my new adventure, ordered my first 50 pack of canvasses and some primary colors. He figured, with the primary colors of red, blue, green and yellow, I’d be able to mix anything I’d need. Boy, was he right! We expanded the collection by white and black, and off I went into my adventure. I watched youtube tutorials, got inspired and copied what I saw, as best as I could. It didn’t take long until I wanted to dive deeper, expanded my color repertoire and started giving my paintings my own twist. I noticed that many of the artists online would thrive for perfection in one way or the other. I got bored with this “picture perfect” perfection fairly quickly and wanted to break out of the framework of perfect cells and swipes. Now I deliberately break cells, or want to suppress cells purposely, and always incorporate a simmering shimmer of metallics, to make it mystical and shiny. 

As for my favorite color palettes, I love the colors of the ocean. Living on the East Coast of the United States, I can’t get enough of the ocean blues, mermaid colors and whimsical underwater world colors. As much as I try to experiment with different color palettes, I always get drawn back to the oceans colors. 😊 Don’t get me wrong, I also like reds with oranges and gold and purple and so on, but I admit that I’m not a big fan of dark green, but I can make it work when asked to. 😊 

As for my techniques, I find myself going through different phases. I love swiping, sometimes I can’t get away from blow outs / Dutch pours. I also find balloon kisses very satisfying and could do them all day. That’s why you will find a wide range of different paintings in my collection. The bottom line is that I can’t keep it in and I just have to create these beautiful paintings. I mix my paints, I get my canvasses ready, and it gets messy! Quite literally because it’s quite a messy process. The outcome is always so beautiful and satisfying. In between the painting being done and fully dry, I’m already in love with it and would like to keep it forever! But then it’s time to let them go so that they can brighten someone else’s home!