Featured Artist : Sandi Carpenter

Hi. My name is Sandi Carpenter and I'm a silk artist, born in Mexico, living now in San Diego. I've been painting on silk for about 30 years and am one of your best customers, no doubt, as I love your products.

I'm an internationally published artist, and was introduced to silk painting when I attended an artist supply convention looking for something new. Having worked much with watercolors and acrylics, I wanted something different.  I found a woman there, painting on silk and selling small kits. She let me try it, and I was hooked...years later, here I am still painting on silk and never changing from the medium. I love your silk dyes, especially Dupont and Tinfix and your clear and black resists. The resists wash off easily after steaming, and the dyes turn out with a vibrancy that's truly spectacular. I began incorporating yarns and fibers onto the silk and try to find ways to keep my artwork evolving to higher levels.

Working in mixed media reflects my diverse life. Painting on silk with French dyes, incorporating fabrics and objects with texture; using yarns and broken glass: these become a tool for deeper expression, creating the fluidity of thought or simply capturing the feeling of that moment. Its effect is delightfully palpable and immediate, its emotional diversity running the gamut; connoting a sense of longing and of belonging with equal facility and conviction.

I love creating contemporary ethnic subjects and Caribbean art to Gauguin’s diverse South Pacific tropical paradise, as well as figurative studies and gritty urban scenes. I've been winning awards since the age of 8 and now sell my work in galleries, enter into fine art shows around the US and offer private and group lessons.