Carrie Barcomb is a contemporary landscape painter from Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1994 and works with oil, handmade acrylics, and eco-friendly materials. She began her career in government technical illustration and continued with freelance botanical and environmental illustration featured in publications.
Her plein air painting experiences capturing rural country life in Pennsylvania, the Adirondacks wilderness, coastal Maine, and Iceland— have greatly influenced her work, shifting her focus from precision to a more sensory and experiential approach. Observing changing weather and seasonal shifts has transformed her attention from depiction to perception, grounding her work in the fleeting conditions of the landscape. In 2021, she completed a residency in Iceland, which influenced her focus on impermanence and nature's hidden forces. Her experiences working aboard a tall ship have also deepened her interest in the natural rhythms, light, and the mutable qualities of the environment. Additionally, Barcomb's training as a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist and advocacy for environmental stewardship with local Indigenous communities and diverse art and environmental community groups have all helped shaped her ethical orientation towards the land.
Barcomb's art practice explores the intersection of environmental aesthetics, phenomenology, and contemporary landscape painting. She views landscape as an active force that influences human experience. Through atmospheric abstraction, color modulated color fields, and disciplined composition, she reframes landscape as a dynamic site connecting perception, memory, and ecological time. Her work captures the impact of weather and seasonal changes on both environmental dynamics and human emotions. By sensitizing perception to environmental change, she aims to deepen our connection to the living world and cultivate an awareness of our interdependence with nature.
Select Press Coverage, Articles
"Gifts of Quiet Thunder" Delco Times. 2023
“Titania's Ball Art Exhibition.” Beautiful and Bizarre Magazine. 2023
"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: The Astonishing New Science of the Senses" 2023
Exhibition
"Emptiness 2022: An International Smart Group Exhibition" Contemporary Art Toronto, ON, Art Week 2022
"Mural calms traffic in Media" – Delco Times 2021
“Braving Veracity returns with a new anthology of essays by -- and about -- women” Chester County Press. 2021
"The Refuge of Nature" Maureen Seaberg. 2020
Testimonials
Fine artist Carrie Barcomb allows nature to serve as muse, gliding her brush strokes to capture landscapes lying in wait for interpretation. She grew up understanding the stillness of the landscape and the tranquility and stability it offered juxtaposed with the transitory footprint of humanity.
I was blown away by your gorgeous canvases – the glorious light you capture infuses your work with peaceful beauty.