Honoring This Week's Dan's Papers Cover Artist: Margot Carr

This week’s cover artist, Margot Carr, painted a recognizable local intersection, “Quogue Street,” in a distinctive style that is very much her own.

Carr, who lives and works in New York City as a Managing Director at Richard Attias and Associates, creating large global conferences focusing on economic topics, has been spending weekends in Quogue since she was a child. As stated on her website, “The cobalt blue skies and cadmium green lawns I see on the Eastern End of Long Island inspire my work. I focus on how colors play against each other and the shadows that they create.” Her beaches, lawns and houses are painted with a simplicity that is not easy to achieve, but relies on experience and a mastery of the brush. Carr lets us in on her background as an artist.

Many of your landscapes are local, recognizable scenes. Did you grow up out here?
I grew up in the summers in Quogue…it is my grandfather’s house that we all still descend upon in the summers. He purchased it right before the 1938 hurricane.

When did you first know you wanted to be an artist?
My mother always knew…I knew in about 5th grade when I kept gravitating towards anything associated with art, even shop class—it’s where I felt I belonged.

Your paired-down color seems to be applied with a certain confidence to the canvas or paper. Is this a style that evolved over time?
I was a watercolorist first for many, many years. You get one chance at watercolor and have to be bold with the paint to make an impression on the paper. Changing to oils was hard, but exciting. I missed the white of the watercolor paper.

The cover image has this composition where the sky is mirroring the curve of the road, did that just come about naturally?
It was not a successful painting without it—I just felt it, and once the overhead leaves were put in it was done…I just felt it.

Who are some of the artists you most admire?
Helen Frankenthaler, Sheridan Lord, Francis Bacon, Fairfield Porter, Edward Hopper, Gerhard Richter and Alex Katz.

What do you like best about fall on the East End?
The quiet, the Indian summer, the wind.

Margot Carr’s work can be seen on her website, margotcarr.com, and at Quogue Gallery, 44 Quogue Street, Quogue. Call 631-653-6236 or visit quoguegallery.com for more information.