Auckland, New Zealand

Carla Franks was born in 1952, New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Her formal studies have included several years of graphic design, illustration, painting and photography at Wellington Polytechnic and printmaking classes with renowned New Zealand artist John Drawbridge.

In 1976, Carla moved to Sydney where she established herself as a makeup artist in the fashion industry. While working in London in 1979 Carla was appointed makeup artist to Elton John for his world tour.

Since returning to New Zealand in 1988, Carla has been working as one of the top fashion and celebrity makeup artists in the country, while pursuing her interest in painting.

Carla began painting and drawing seriously in 1999 and soon received her first private commission. Her first solo exhibition “Explorations, Phase #1” – a series of 100 individual textural pieces - at GALLERY 2021, Auckland in 2002 was very successful and brought her style to a wider audience. Since then she has continued developing her art by exploring her responses to the beauty of the environment and representing those feelings in a beautiful, sophisticated and abstract manner using the combined effects of texture and unusual mixed media.


ARTIST STATEMENT

“My TRACERY SERIES paintings are the result of past, present and ongoing journeys of exploration stimulated by my responses to our environment - whether it be the world around us from close up or far away, natural or constructed, including influences such as close up patterns in sand and water or distant satellite images of earth or space.

They are my interpretation of what is both on and under a surface; what can be seen and what may yet become apparent and what possibilities there could be in the spaces between. I explore by experimenting with colour, shape, form and different medium and textures. I am interested in using layers of paint to convey flow and rhythm, building the image up day by day, wondering at the results that come from deliberate actions as well as those resulting from taking chances.

In my work I attempt to look with a fresh eye at the worlds around us.”

- Carla Franks, July 2004