by caroline watson

artist’s statement

Like weird children, my work emerges from a wellspring of thoughts, some of which I have carried with me since childhood. As with dreams, these thoughts originate from the everyday, are reordered and emerge through the process of imagination. The work is made from my experiences and coloured by an interest in old things, folklore, and all that is human.

My recent paintings use the world of the puppet as a microcosm of our own, the colourful characters expressing both the best and worst of our natures. Although figurative at present, it is becoming more abstracted in an attempt to reign in and condense the myriad of images I experience imaginatively, confining them to canvas and extracting and displaying their essence.

Currently, I am embarking on a series of 3 dimensional work including booths and simple puppets, using them as a springboard to create new paintings and exploring the aspects of personal space so prevalent in my dreams.