Caroline Larsen’s still-life paintings are of elaborate bouquets and equally elaborate vases. She has an icing-thick painting technique where she squeezes paint across the canvas to create a kaleidoscopic composition of her concentrated study of the still-life genre. Flowers, vase and background are all taken over the top with pattern, hue and texture. A majority of the vases in her work are from Longwy, France manufactured during the Art Deco period. These faience, whose overglaze decoration became famous in 1925 during the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts where the term “Art Deco” was coined.
Larsen’s works all start by digitally collaging found images of flowers, vases and psychedelic optical imagery into a flora still-life arrangement. Her newest works reference the optical phenomenon “Magic Eye” where compositions are repeating over and over again, filling the canvas with a densely colored pattern.