GARDINER —  An exhibition featuring the work of John Carnes entitled “Chaos to Quiet: Deconstructing Complexity” will be hosted at Monkitree, 263 Water Street,  from May 31-June 27. As an artist working in watercolor, pastel and graphite for more than 20 years, Carnes continues to explore ways to communicate his emotional response to landscape and to the human figure. Finding excitement in the chaos, he reveals the beauty and delight of both complexity and quiet.

Carnes describes his experience with visual stimuli stating, “Sometimes when I find myself surrounded by a raspberry thicket taller than I am, or in a recent clear cut, or at the foot of a thundering waterfall, the visual information can be almost overwhelming. When I survey the scene I have a great desire to understand my surroundings by identifying their underlying structure.”

This process involves noting essential lines, recurring patterns, and significant shapes. Carnes also often notes the five or six colors that first caught his attention. With these elements he begins to create a painting or drawing. If, in his mark making or painting, he chooses to eliminate everything but those essential lines or dozen basic shapes, he can express something fundamental about place with very little information.

When Carnes intends to express movement, he describes his process this way, “In that case I start from the essential lines and shapes then build back up toward complexity by using multiple marks, or brush strokes, or alternating layers of graphite and paint. When these images work, they often seem to vibrate with a life of their own.”

Carnes looks at the human figure as another landscape, quiet and still, or electric with pent-up energy and potential movement.

The Kennebec River Valley and the state’s western mountains provide a never-ending source of inspiration and subject matter. Living in Gardiner and working at Artdogs Studios in Gardiner, Carnes has found a wonderful family of fellow artists residing in a supportive community of galleries, theater and restaurants.

The public is invited to meet the artist at a reception from 5-9 p.m. Friday, June 14.