Carita Farrer Spencer is a vocational artist across many disciplines. Growing up surrounded by artists and performers meant the stage was set for Carita to spend her life immersed in the Creative Arts Industry. After completing a Bachelor Degree in Acting, Carita has worked professionally in theatre, film&tv, cabaret, circus and music over a 30 year career with her visual art practise now firmly in the spotlight as well.
Carita’s painting style has been described as a cocktail of contemporary modern expressionism with a strong signature graphic twist. Collected by public, private and corporate clients who are drawn to her unique style which is simultaneously rebellious and refined.
Throughout her art practise Carita finds herself drawn to familiar botanical shapes and textures connected to the ancient tradition of flowers, whose messages and emotions are conveyed without the need for words. Roses are a particularly significant symbol that connect Carita to the memory of her maternal grandmother, who was a painter and her first art teacher.
“As a child I would spend every afternoon and most weekends at my grandparents house and disappear into their lush tropical backyard for hours, foraging for flowers, leaves and seeds pods which I would use to create my imaginary worlds. It was an oasis I loved to retreat to away from the dry hot country town in Central Queensland where I lived. I often imagined I was the only human on the planet and needed to survive on what I could forage for food and shelter. This is how I feel when I paint. Hidden from the world. Completely immersed. Content. Alone. Like I'm the only person alive, exploring the world around me, reliant on my imagination for survival.
I never know where a painting will take me, what path its going to lead me down. I set off courageously each time I start a new work. Sometime the path is smooth and relaxing and other times it painful and hard and I get hopelessly lost. But for me this is where the true creative experience lies. Working against any uncomfortable feelings and doubts, not being fearful of mistake or failure and continuing on intuitively, searching for the beauty within the chaos. One of my favourite quotes sums this up...
“Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.” - Erol Ozan
As an adult I found a very similar connection when I found another very special oasis in one of my favourite places on earth, Mexico. I travelled there with my husband and our kids when they were little, when my husband was touring with Cirque Du Soleil. We lived in Mexico City for a couple of months and we would visit Museo Frida Kahlo, Casa Azul, as often as possible. Spending hours watching my kids playing as I once did, in Frida & Diego’s magnificent oasis garden surrounded by their legacy of creative expressionand those magnificent ultra saturate blue walls, remains a constant inspiration and influence that I return to often in my own art practise."
- Carita