Carol Ladewig’s Place series (2018–present) continues her exploration of abstraction through layered, improvisational color-field paintings with vertical drips and meandering lines that resemble running paint. Using brushes, rollers, and dripping, she works in a back-and-forth process of adding and removing layers. Titles such as Berkshire Fall, Oakland Berkshire, or Forest Meditations: August 19th evoke location and season.

Ladewig recalls realizing that the drips, which she had treated as formal elements, evoked the forest outside her studio window — one of those moments when what you’ve been searching for is right in front of you. Some canvases suggest tree trunks, branching forms, or the rivulets of rainwater on windows. Others remain focused on the movement of paint itself. The Berkshires work often carries the light and color of changing seasons, while Oakland’s urban environment inspires more muted tones and textured surfaces.

The series holds together through this tension between abstraction, paint handling, and emergent imagery. Within that framework, the paintings range from minimal, nearly monochromatic canvases recalling Ladewig’s earlier color-mixing work to subtle juxtapositions of unusual, non-naturalistic color.