Caroline completed her BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree from Leeds Metropolitan University as a mature student in 2005. She lives in Harrogate in glorious North Yorkshire. She is a member of Printmakers Circle, a group of artists working across the width and breadth of North Yorkshire in print.

I am fascinated by the human form and consider myself a figurative artist. My inspiration comes from a variety of sources, family, friends and life models. I use a variety of mediums and techniques to create my work, and both painting and printmaking is central to my creative practice.

Whilst I am primarily a figurative artist, I have am also interested in reinterpreting the natural world, abstraction, and mixing mediums such as paint, print, collage and ceramics. I love playing around with ideas and seeing what happens.

I have always used mono-printing as a form of drawing and a place to ground my observations: it came to the fore whilst I was studying for my fine art degree at Leeds Metropolitan University as a mature student . The print studio was like an Aladdin’s cave with opportunities to try out all the treasures within. I was encouraged to experiment and explore printmaking and place it at the centre of my art practice. Much of the subsequent work is strongly aligned with my passion for drawing and painting the human form and portraiture. And many of the portraits and figurative compositions have developed from an obsession with my daughter who is autistic. I remain fascinated and challenged by the process of capturing her and her image in my work.

I am persuaded by the notion of a psychological distance between artist and sitter and the impossibility of truly knowing what lies below the surface. Ultimately your own emotional responses guide the process and outcome.

I am interested in the exploration of what is in front of me, whether capturing a likeness or creating a composition which is focused on more formal preoccupations such as line, the relationship of space and form, and colour. Recently I have been exploring how to combine my figurative drawing with linocuts and other printing techniques on a larger scale.