Carolyn Latanision, CM

Carolyn Latanision, a Bethlehem, PA native, lives in Winchester, Massachusetts. She graduated from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and studied at Ohio State University, and the Art Institute of Boston, and currently teaches private watercolor classes in her Woburn studio. For a few years, she has been adding to a series of paintings of the now defunct Bethlehem Steel Corporation plant in Bethlehem, PA, having grown up just a few blocks from it.

A native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, growing up just blocks from the blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel Company, Carolyn was surrounded daily by the commanding structures and activities at the massive plant. When the company closed in 1995, she committed to memorializing it, knowing that it was so very important in the history of our country, and her own family, and realizing that those structures had influenced her painting and her choice of subject matter in many ways.

People and architecture have figured prominently in Carolyn’s work and in both cases urban scenes are frequently depicted. The strength and style of buildings and the many abstract patterns of light and dark they provide, the juxtaposition of people and architecture, and the connections they create, make a statement about the complexities of the time in which we live. Sometimes she’ll catch amusing and unexpected moments of life that suggest possibilities the viewer can interpret from his or her own perspective.

Carolyn Latanision was fortunate to grow up in a house with a mother who was both an artist and an art teacher, so drawing and painting were simply accepted as a normal part of life. Although accomplished with oil, acrylic, pastel, and casein, watercolor became an addiction in adulthood because of the many challenges it presents. The technical difficulties made it both fun and difficult, often a gamble, the results rewarding.

She has been elected to Signature Membership in the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, Allied Artists of America, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society (and Sylvan Grouse Guild), Philadelphia Water Color Society, New England Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society, Whiskey Painters of America, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (NYC), and a few others. She is a designated Copley Society Master in the Copley Society of Art in Boston, a member of Whistler House Museum of Art and also Rockport Art Association.

There have been multiple awards from the above societies, including receiving top honors in the international exhibition of the National Watercolor Society in 2017, and achieving second place the previous year.

Latanision’s work has been published by Boston Museum of Science and included in several books, including Painting in Light and Shadow, 100 Ways to Paint Figures, 100 Ways to Paint Still Life ( Rockport Publishers), 100 Artists of New England (Schiffer), and in 2021 published in Splash 22, a collection of specially chosen watercolor paintings nationally.

Her paintings have been acquired by Sidley Austin LLP in New York, Westin Hotel (Boston), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cabot Corporation, Massachusetts General Hospital, Penn State University, the Harvard Club in Boston, Katayama Chemical in Osaka, Japan among others. Her work is included in many corporate and private collections globally.

Latanision has won prestigious national awards for her work from the societies mentioned above, as well as from Audubon Artists, The Salmagundi Club, Adirondack National Exhibition of American Watercolors, Allied Artists of America, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition, and the Liz Koch Patron Purchase Award in the Kansas Watercolor Society National Exhibition, among others.

Boston Museum of Science and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have both published her work. Most recently, Latanision’s work was featured in 100 Artists of New England (Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2011). Rockport Publishers has included her work in Painting Light and Shadow, International Artist has included her work in two publications, and Watercolor Magazine has featured her work as well. Her paintings have been included in 100 Ways to Paint Still Life as well as 100 Ways to Paint Figures. Corporate locations have figured prominently as well: Sidley Austin Brown and Wood, LLP in NYC; Westin Hotel at Copley Place in Boston; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Federal Savings Bank, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cabot Corporation and Harvard Club of Boston in the Boston area; Martin-Marietta Corporation in Baltimore; and Katayama Chemical Inc. in Osaka, Japan, to name a few.

People and architecture figure prominently in Latanision’s work and in both cases urban scenes are frequently depicted. The strength and style of buildings and the many abstract patterns of light and dark they provide, the juxtaposition of people and architecture and the connections they create, make a statement about the complexities of the time in which we live. Sometimes she’ll catch amusing chances or accidents of life that suggest possibilities the viewer can interpret from his or her own perspective. Watercolor is a favored medium because of the continuing and interesting challenges it presents, although Latanision is accomplished in other media as well.

A native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, memorializing the Bethlehem Steel Company plant in watercolor, oil, casein and also photographs, is an ongoing project.

Website: www.CarolynLatanision.com