Carol Smyser McHarg, 74, of Kennett Square, passed away on September 8, at Crosslands retirement community. She was the wife of the late Ian Lennox McHarg. She had battled cancer for four years.
She was born on October 10, 1948 in York, the daughter of the late William Smyser, and the late Eleanor (Heckman) Smyser. She is survived by her son Ian McHarg (wife Tori) of Asheville, NC, son Andrew McHarg of Philadelphia, grandchildren Avalyn and Lennox McHarg, brother Steve Smyser of Charlottesville, VA, brother Andy Smyser of York, niece Carrie Santmyer (husband Todd) of Manchester, MD, niece Amanda Scharrer (husband Adrian) of Camp Hill and nephew Drew Smyser of South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Carol was a graduate of Penn State and she and obtained a Masters Degree (MLA) at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a landscape architect, an author, a teacher, an artist, a chef, an equestrian, and an archer. She was a part of a community of friends and neighbors in Chester County, and she lived a very active life. She enthusiastically enjoyed sharing her talents and interests with her family and many friends.
Posted online on September 15, 2023
Published in York Daily Record, York Dispatch
Carol S. McHarg has a studio in Philadelphia near Washington Square and commutes to New York weekly to teach landscape design at Columbia University. She has had exhibitions worldwide including those at Brad Cooper Gallery, Florida and The Pennsylvania Academy of fine Arts, Philadelphia. Her work is in several collections in Italy and the U.S. She is the author of the best selling book Nature’s Design, published by Rodale Press, in which she explained how to design with nature.
The recent works of Carol McHarg push the boundaries of contemporary landscape painting. She expresses her history and ideology as a Landscape Architect and at the same time moves the history of art onto a new plane. These powerful paintings look at ecology, design, cartography and the impacts of engineers and designers to question what is natural and what is not.
This narrative is embodied not only in the subject matter, but also in the style and materiality of the work. The artist combines symbolism with reality, perspective with flatness and an exaggerated configuration of nature overlaid with an artificial reconfiguration of the landscape. She questions what is natural and what is man-made in the world at large and in the painting itself.
Peter Reed, Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at The Museum of Modern Art, states, “Carol’s work provides a provocative commentary on the subject of contemporary landscape.” Osvaldo Romberg, world-renowned artist, says her striking landscapes are beautiful without being decorative, inventive and also painterly. He refers to her work as “indefinable.”
Mr. and Mrs. James Blaine, Mt. Desert, ME
Ms. Joan Colin Carpenter, Rome, Italy
Mr. and Mrs. Marcello Cicchinelli, Rome, Italy
Mr. Corradino Colaci, Lecci, Puglia, Italy
Mr. and Mrs. Luciano Lazzarini, Rome, Italy
Ms. Kim Matthews, Boulder, CO
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Roberts, Philadelphia, PA
Mr. Henry Thomas, Princeton, NJ
1990-present
Artist, Unionville, PA
2005-present
Landscape Design Studio Master, Columbia University, New York, NY
2002-2004
Program Leader/Professor, Penn State University Department of Landscape Architecture, Rome, Italy
1995-1996
Adjunct Professor, Temple University Department of Landscape Architecture, Ambler, PA
1980-2000
McHarg Landscape Architects, Unionville, PA
2006
Digitations 2006, ARTROM Gallery, Rome, Italy
The Post Modern Landscape, Brad Cooper Gallery, Tampa, FL
Just Paint, ARTROM Gallery, Online Exhibition
Juried Exhibition
Finalist
The National Arts Club, Online Exhibition
Through the Eyes of Women, Rome, Italy
2004
The Supper Club, Rome, Italy
2002
The White Box, Philadelphia, PA
1999
Alumni Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
1997
SAS Student Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
