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Her delicate watercolor paintings might be termed "tide-pool art". The intricate designs depict the oft-overlooked sea creatures and objects cast up on the state's craggy shoreline. "I paint all the things people step on," she says, smiling. . . . Most of the works combine marine subjects . . . and present them as though they had been dumped from a bag after a day of beachcombing. - Down East Magazine, August 1998 Mimi reverses what she considers the conventional way of looking at beach and water . . . she views the wide scape through the small scope of minute observation. Her still lifes, even the largest ones, depict intricate coincidences of separate objects: pebbles, fragments of lobster and crab shells, barnacles - "Things people step on, the leavings, the discoveries you can make if you free yourself from bigness and begin noticing the details that make possible the treasure hunt of being aware." - Waterville Morning Sentinel |
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"I appreciate and encourage curiosity - looking closely, treasuring the things that are directly before us. All that is unique or ordinary has the capacity to fill us with awe and remind us of our responsibilities to cherish and protect . . . I marvel at the wish to reflect the miracle of science and the spiritual intertwined." Mimi conveys a child-like sense of wonder in her artwork and writing. Mimi's philosophy, spirituality, and love of the environment are embodied in her beautiful illustrations. - New England Science Center Carpenter's paintings, drawings and prints provide a softer view of many of the same wonders of nature - through awe-filled, child-like eyes of a dreamer. - The Worcester Phoenix Mimi Gregoire Carpenter was born, raised and educated in the state of Maine, but her appreciation for the state and its bounty came from her foreign born parents, who took her on joyous trips to the seashore as a child. As she searched for her identity and place as an artist, she found herself back on that very same shore. Mimi goes about collecting and celebrating the treasure of flotsam and jetsam in every nook and cranny of every tidal pool and beach along the coast of the state of Maine with forays into Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Her treasure trove is brought back to her studio where she lovingly poses her seascape/still lifes and meticulously and faithfully portrays every detail before her, from a palate of dried watercolor much like the palate of her childhood. Out of every season Mimi creates a few mermaids to complete a creative need. She received a degree in art from the University of Maine, teaching until 1975 when her daughter Tessa was born. Tessa inspired her to paint, illustrate and to write. Driven by the primal need to bond with other artists as well as those who appreciate and appropriate her artwork, Mimi exhibits primarily through her own gallery/studio or in traveling galleries/art festivals throughout coastal New England. Her childlike exuberance for her life as an artist offers this list of highlights: Mimi's love of the coast, her life and her career will continue to be expressed in her paintings of What the Sea Has Left Behind with her move to Cape Porpoise & Goose Rocks Beach in southern Maine at Beachcomber Studio. |
