Natasha
Carrie Goller creates paintings that inhabit the quiet space between material and imagination. Known for her distinctive use of encaustic wax and oil paint, Goller builds compositions that feel suspended in time – intimate, atmospheric, and emotionally resonant. Her subjects, often birds, cats, and other creatures adorned with florals, exist in environments that feel more dreamlike than literal.
In many works, Goller begins with encaustic, layering pigmented wax to form luminous, textured grounds. These surfaces are softly dimensional and cloud-like, dissolving any fixed sense of horizon or place. Light activates the wax, revealing subtle movement and depth. Painted in oil atop these atmospheric foundations, her figures emerge with clarity and individuality. The dialogue between diffused wax and defined oil creates a delicate visual tension: her subjects feel both weightless and grounded.
Petunia
Not all of Goller’s paintings incorporate encaustic. Some works are rendered entirely in oil, allowing her to explore a different kind of surface—smoother, more direct, yet equally nuanced in tone and emotion. Whether working in mixed media or solely in oil, her focus remains consistent: to create spaces where material enhances meaning and atmosphere supports narrative.
Across her practice, Goller balances softness with structure, mystery with presence. The result is a body of work that feels playful yet contemplative, inviting viewers into worlds shaped as much by feeling as by form.
View the artist’s available works here.