Her latest work, a series of over 30 beach figura-
tives, paintings focused on the human figure, was inspired by people watching on Carpinteria beaches. “I’m a quick draw,” says Enticknap, understating her ability. “I find characters at the beach and sketch them right there.” If the subject becomes aware of the surreptitious
artist sketching them, she stops the sketch. Once she is found out, her subjects become self-conscious and lose their essence. The leisurely beach-going pos- ture stiffens. “The beach is a relaxed social setting for people when they don’t know I’m watching. The young girls are preening. Older people are reading. Men don’t stay around for too long—they’re off to throw a ball or get into the water.” In each person Enticknap chooses to draw, she
sees a story. Behavior, posture and body language influence sketches until exaggerated characters are reborn into their lives on canvas. The characters, who Enticknap says would not recognize themselves in her paintings, are rearranged into paintings after she selects them from the pages of her sketchbooks. In the paintings, the formerly unrelated figures interact, informing a work through combinations of bodies and activities and the suggested relationships between young and old, active and inactive or whichever com- bination of traits the artist chooses. Another part of the appeal of painting beach
16 CarpinteriamagaZINe
scenes, Enticknap says, is the contrast between skin tone and beach sand. With a fascination only attain- able in an artist’s imagination, she marvels at the endless varieties of colors and tones on a beach. “The sand and skin interact too,” she says. “Some people are pink. Some people are very brown.” Specifics of facial features are less important than
shape and color in Enticknap’s latest work. Sometimes a face will get lost in a blur of color. Other times, an expressive face or an indolent, disinterested look are left on a character’s face. The faceless figures invite a closer examination into the music of movement and contour of bodies. Faces left in the image punctuate the scene.
Carpinteria beaches have not always been in En-
ticknap’s backyard and fine art has not always been her focus. Originally an east coaster, she grew up in Concord, Massachusetts and attended school at Mas- sachusetts College of Art in Boston before obtaining a bachelor of arts degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1978. Enticknap settled down in New Jersey for the two decades following college and founded a graphic design agency, Rivermead Studio, where she was a hands-on owner as the company’s art director. Her work as a designer earned her national awards. She most enjoyed the creative challenge of listening to what clients wished to communicate to their audiences, interpreting that message and form-
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