Douglas Leon Cartmel’s new paintings explore the wonder as well as the naturally occurring abstractions held within these snowy forest landscapes. The impressionistic paintings emphasize the textures and shapes of the random snow-covered trees and human-like limbs. The surfaces of the works have been further manipulated, pushing the imagery towards abstraction, and referencing the movement and the motion of a constantly changing environment. The paintings are more than just a static picture or photograph, but a gesture, turning these isolated places into archetypes of adventure and the discovery of the other worldly.

The snowy forest body of work is rounded out with the addition of several abstract paintings that reference possible viewpoints into this naturalistic world, a window or small structure, further exploring our relationship with this rough setting through the architectural notion of the inside versus outside and our desire for shelter and protection in the midst of these beautiful yet often times extreme types of environments. 

Douglas Leon Cartmel was born in 1971 and currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas. He studied architecture and painting at the University of Texas at Arlington and received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture. Cartmel's works have been exhibited in galleries and museum shows in Dallas as well as exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York and his work is included in many public and private collections including the Dallas Museum of Art and the Goss-Michael Collection. Cartmel's work has been featured in FD Magazine, D Home Magazine, Papercity, the New American Paintings Vol. 72 as well as the 2006 TWO X TWO Catalogue of Works.