Carole McCray is a Cape May artist drawn to capturing the ever-changing moods of the seasons and particular times of the day of the salt marshes, the sky and the water. "I think anyone lucky enough to be an artist easily notices the natural beauty around us; brilliant sunsets, an azure sky, cloud shapes and verdant meadows." Anne Frank said it well, "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
Artist Statement: "I paint in oils or acrylics with my focus on the emotion a subject evokes for me, and I interpret that feeling to create a mood in my paintings, not an exact rendition of the subject, but my interpretation." Picasso said, "I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them."
Carole studied with professional artists at the Schott Center, Santa Barbara, California and at The Glynn Art Center in St. Simon's Island, Georgia in addition to numerous workshops. Her paintings have won best of show, have been accepted into numerous juried shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey where they garnered awards, and they are in private and corporate collections. Carole is a member of the Cape May County Art League, The Ocean City Art League and The Ocean City Center for the Arts. She has an annual solo show at The Mad Batter Restuarant in Cape May.
In addition to painting, Carole is a garden and lifestyle writer with a monthly column in Pennsylvania newspapers. Her articles have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor Newspaper, Coastal Living, Ideals Magazine and Cape May Magazine and other gardening and lifestyle publications. She won the Garden Writers Association Award for newspaper writing for The Christian Science Monitor Newspaper.