Perspectives: "Swamp and Circumstance"

“For stress, there’s nothing like being on the water,” remarked Carol Hallock, who balances twin passions—painting and paddling—by combining the two. From her home on the banks of Bayou Lacombe, Hallock climbs (carefully) into a kayak fitted with an easel in front of the cockpit, and goes in search of subject matter. “I paddle until something catches my eye,” she said. “Oftentimes it will be a place I’ve been to or painted before. But there’s something about the weather, or the time of day (or year) that makes it completely different.”

That, to Hallock’s way of thinking, is what painting can do that a camera cannot. “Do you ever take a photograph, then look at it the next day and wonder why you took it?” she said. “That’s the difference between an artist and a camera: the camera can’t see what you saw; it can’t zone in on what attracted you. But with a painting, you can focus in on what it was about the scene that attracted you in the first place, and paint it so other people see it that way, too.” 

As a working artist, Hallock applies her loose, expressive style to subject matter far removed from the waterscapes of her St. Tammany Parish home, too. Her latest show, entitled Swamp and Circumstance, juxtaposes her signature bayou paintings, against a series of warm, lively New Orleans street scenes that make abundant use of the artist’s signature banana leaves and exuberant, slightly cartoonish approach to line. The color palette of Hallock’s New Orleans work represents a departure, too. “When I go to New Orleans to paint I’m being a good tourist; I like to ride around and have fun,” she said. She adapts to her urban subject matter by starting with a layer of red undercoat—setting a tone that demands that she leave her color palette “comfort zone.” That doesn’t come easy. “I had to force the red palette a bit because I’ve been having trouble painting happy pictures,” she said, explaining that she’s been dealing with some family illness. “So painting the New Orleans work was like pulling teeth. The bayou is always peaceful, so there’s a different color palette. It’s muted, nothing is ever in your face.”

Hallock resists invitations to ascribe any grand theories to her work. “I paint things because I want to,” she said. Having said that, she does recognize that the paintings she makes have the potential to help people see their surroundings through more appreciative eyes. “There’s a stretch of Lake Road that I would pass by twice a day, but I never thought twice about it until I saw a painting of that place made by my friend Mary Monk. Now I see it entirely differently; now I love it. I guess my art can do that, too. I’ve always loved art, but I guess I’ve always taken it for granted. I never knew it really did anything.”

Carol Hallock’s exhibit, Swamp and Circumstance, opens at Gallery 600 Julia in New Orleans with a reception on April 7 from 6 pm to 9 pm. In Baton Rouge, she is represented by Elizabethan Gallery on Jefferson Avenue. carolhallock.com.  

This month, Hallock will be profiled on LPB’s Art Rocks, the weekly showcase of visual and performing arts hosted by Country Roads publisher James Fox-Smith. Tune in Friday, April 20, at 8:30 pm, or Saturday, April 21, at 5:30 pm, across the LPB network. lpb.org/artrocks.

This article originally appeared in our April 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.