Artist Bio
Carol Brenner Tobe is a Louisville native, and resident of Floyds Knobs, Indiana for over fifty years. She is a graduate in Fine Arts from the University of Louisville where she was a Hite Scholar and studied with noted landscape painter Eugene Leake; well-known Louisville artist Mary Spencer Nay; and Charles Crodel, German artist and visiting professor. She is a landscape painter, painting in oil and water-based media, and selects subject matter from the familiar landscapes of gardens, backyards, roadsides, meadows and neighborhoods. In addition to a solo exhibit at Bourne-Schweitzer Gallery, she has been in duo exhibitions at Carnegie Center for Art and History and, most recently, at Bourne-Schweitzer. A number of individuals have commissioned Tobe’s paintings to celebrate their most memorable places. Her works have been shown in local and regional group exhibits and are currently available at Bourne-Schweitzer Gallery in New Albany; the HAC Gallery in Corydon; Art on Main in Madison; and Kleinhelter Gallery in New Albany.
Carol Tobe was the Founding Director of both the Floyd County Museum (now Carnegie Center) and the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) in Louisville and was active in museum associations in Kentucky and Indiana. When she retired from the APH Museum in 2005, she was able to devote more time to her art and other projects. Other professional positions include work at the Louisville Art Gallery; Louisville Visual Art Association; Jefferson County of Historic Preservation; and historic preservation projects in Kentucky and Indiana. Her publications include the books; Worthington and Springdale, the Kentucky community where she grew up; and History in the Making: the Story of the American Printing House for the Blind, 1858-2008.
Artist Statement
My home is in the rural hills “knobs” of Southern Indiana and I am happiest when I’m in my garden or enjoying the changing variety of the broad landscape outside my windows. For subject matter, however, I am primarily interested in more intimate landscapes – fragments of neighborhoods, back yards, gardens – both formal and informal. My primary medium is traditional oil paint on canvas and I like working with gouache for smaller, more spontaneous paintings. In my paintings I want to celebrate and inspire others to appreciate the beauty of the familiar world we share.