ACTS OF Reverence

The Bakersfield Museum of Art showcases the breathtaking still lifes of California artist Pamela Carroll.

- BY JOHN O'HERN

Pomegranates in a Basket, 2022, oil on panel, 28 x 22 in.

Pamela Carroll and her late husband, Chris, raised their son, Dustin, in a charming cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Filled with light, their home overlooked the surrounding landscape of the Monterey Peninsula and the dome of the Carmel Mission Basilica. The cottage had been designed and constructed in 1940 by Julia Morgan, the first woman architect licensed in California after having been the first woman admitted to the architecture program at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Morgan walked the five miles from her home and studio in Monterey to oversee construction of the cottage in Carmel. At the same time, she was designing and overseeing the building, furnishing and decoration of William Randolph Hearst's Castle, Cuesta Encantada (Enchanted Hill), in San Simeon, California, a project she began in 1919 and worked on for 28 years.

Carroll and I first met in 2012 when I gave a talk at the International Guild of Realism's annual exhibition and conference in Carmel. Her portraits and still lifes—primarily colorful old toys and the objects of everyday life—stood out with their simplicity and finely-rendered detail. Her most recent work will be shown in the exhibition Pamela Carroll: The Beauty Inherent at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in Bakersfield, California, through September 6. The exhibition has been coordinated by the museum's curator of exhibitions and collections, Victor Gonzales.

Carroll is self-taught, drawing dogs and houses as a girl, always striving to “make things look real.” Her circle of influences and mentors is broad, from the masters of Dutch and Spanish painting to contemporary realists. She worked at various artistic endeavors including drawing portraits at Lion Country Safari before devoting herself to her home and family for 16 years, allowing time for painting two weeks out of the month.