Caroline Thomson

Pretend it’s the Whole World in Space

Jackson's Painting Prize 2022
Oil
Canvas
71 x 51cm

“Caroline Thomson creates paintings of figures, specifically children immersed within a landscape. They are absorbed within their own world. Ideas around childhood, the nature of imagination and memory are entangled in these enchanted spaces, where the children are the protagonists of their own making. Thomson draws on the rich artistic and literary history of woodland and forests which act as a metaphor for retreat, transformation or the unknown to create psychologically charged paintings.

The works range in scale from small intimate works to larger more immersive paintings. Drawn from personal photographs the paintings emerge from thin washes of oil paint combined with a rhythmic calligraphic line, allowing light and colour to create atmosphere. As the painting evolves it transcends its photographic origins allowing ideas of time and memory to become embedded within the layers of paint.”