Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 3, 1992 TAG: 9202040400
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
CAR CRAZY PORTRAITURE ROANOKE ARTIST PAINTS HER FIRST LOVE IN WATERCOLORS
WHEN Carol Marlowe Nelms took up painting about 10 years ago, she knew she wasn't going to be satisfied with still lifes and landscapes."I wanted to do work with something of myself in it," the artist said.
She found her subject in the automobile and has become a specialist in what might be called car portraits. She loves the technical challenge of capturing the reflective properties of sleek curved surfaces.
She also loves cars.
"When I was in my 20s and other girls were getting Cosmopolitan, I was reading Car and Driver," she said. "My dates loved me."
Nelms just completed a series of 10 paintings for Berglund Chevrolet in Roanoke, one for the office of each salesman. The cars - all Chevies, of course - range from a boxy 1933 model to a '91 Corvette.
"When I got the commission it felt like Christmas," the 40-year-old artist said. "To do what you enjoy doing and get paid for it is really rare in today's world."
Nelms was born in West Virginia, but the Roanoke Valley has been home since she was 3. She lives in a Roanoke County subdivision with her husband, Walker, and her two daughters from a previous marriage, Lindsey and Meredith.
She does most of her painting on a window-lit landing outside the master bedroom, though she has been known to set up an easel in the family room if there's a good murder mystery or British comedy on television. The artist also has space at Studios on the Square in downtown Roanoke.
Nelms uses Marlowe - her maiden name - as a signature on her paintings. She often works from pictures taken by her husband, who is an accomplished amateur photographer. Sometimes they prowl auto junkyards for "reference" material.
Nelms has a master's degree in early childhood development and was a teacher for more than nine years. She gave it up when Lindsey was born in 1981. She took up painting in 1982, beginning with a year of study under Roanoke artist Joan Henley.
Her first automotive subject was a 1936 Chevy that she spotted parked beside a county road. The picture quickly sold. She next did a 1940 Ford; it was snapped up too.
Besides selling reasonably well, Nelms noticed, car portraits attracted a lot of friendly attention at shows.
"People would come up and chat," she said. "They'd see a picture of a '57 Chevy or something and say, `Oh, we went on our honeymoon in one of those.' "
"Cars are an important part of a lot of peoples' lives," the artist continued. "You think of them as just getting you from one place to another. But, just like old songs, they can stimulate memories and stories."
Though she expects to try other media, Nelms currently works in watercolor because that's what she was taught. Her paintings have been accepted for exhibition by the state watercolor associations of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The 1990 Adirondack National Watercolor Exhibition in New York included her painting of a 1938 Ford with the reflected image of a nearby golfer visible on one of the fenders. Though clients usually prefer a more straightforward likeness of their cars, Nelms relishes offbeat touches like the golfer.
"When I do a car I want to do the reflective surfaces and the odd angle," she said.
The glistening front ends of an Edsel and an MG, shown close up and in loving detail, are the subject of two of the artist's favorite paintings.
Though automobiles are Nelms' bread and butter, they aren't her only subject. She does occasional portraits - mostly of children she knows well - and animals.
She donates a portion of any income from animal paintings to the SPCA, where her husband serves on the board of directors.
The artist also plans to do a late-afternoon snow scene, provided the weather cooperates.
"I like dusk," she said. "The colors and light fascinate me. They're so different from any other time of day."
To Nelms, self-expression is what counts most in art. She believes enjoying the process is as important as developing technique.
In her case, painting also has been therapeutic. She turned to it whenever possible while seeing her recently deceased mother through the final two years of her illness.
"It's been an outlet," Nelms said, "a way to calm myself and ventilate frustration."
Nelms tries to paint in four-hour stretches three or four times a week.
"The time goes by so quickly," she said. "Hours seem like minutes. It reminds me of when you're reading a good book and you don't want to put it down. You're not in the present world. You're somewhere else and you're having fun and you don't want to come home."