Karla Chambers grew up on a farm that has been a part of her family for over 120 years. A hard working woman whose business sense helped bring produce from her family's organic and sustainable farms into grocery stores internationally, her inner passion is to portray the world of farming in which she lives though her art. In 2005, Karla purchased her first art supplies and the rest is history. Karla is one of those rare and talented individuals who can truly be called a Naive painter.

"You cannot be a Naive Painter just because you want to"... Anatole Jakovsky.

Nothing of what we know about the genres of art in terms of the origins of an artistic movement can be likened to the adventure of naive painting. Comparisons of painting in this style with drawings done by children or with most forms of folk art are uninformed. A definition, admittedly, is not easy. While the works shows certain common features, there are other characteristics which are at variance with one another. Some elements,
which project beyond the purely folk or primitive art, carry the most talented Naive painters into the realm of high art.

A Naive painter may be untutored or classically trained, but each has invented their own expressive and stylistic alphabet entirely un-aided by what they have been taught and uninfluenced by any school of painting. Each of these artists have their own vision of the world which is uniquely different from that of any other painter.

What do painters such as Marc Chagall, Rousseau, Seraphine, and Boulanger have in common? There are no common references or styles shared and yet all are Naive. This is why Naive art is not something which can be taught and any attempts to imitate will be trite. For the same reason, there can never be a school of Naive painting as this is a contradiction in terms. This fundamental difference separates these painters from all the representatives of folk art, even if only because the latter work is produced according to certain rules and patterns which have been passed down through the centuries from one generation to another.

The individual vision of every painter arises from a condition of the soul which is particularly unique and commanding. The effect of the climate and soil, the degree of familiarity with the technicalities of painting together with certain intangible elements: the air, the time, and a mysterious feeling for color combine to make an indelible impression upon the artist. Consequently, French Naive painters are different from those in America and those in America differ from those in Germany. The differences are as easy to spot as those that exist between the popular art of central Europe and that of South America. Karla's art is a reflection of an American farmer's vision.

 

Karla Chambers

 

 

Karla Chambers Artwork

Karla Chambers at Gallery 444 2016

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