Caroline Cornelius

ELECTED ARWS 2022

Caroline’s work explores a certain fragility and fleetingness inherent in life and in particular, a woman’s life. Using intimate scenes from her personal experience as my main source of inspiration, her work is an exploration of the female form and the duality of ageing and maturing: the mutability of beauty and the confidence that comes with self-acceptance.

"Motherhood has brought a perspective on the particular angst experienced by teenage girls - raising questions about body image and being comfortable in your own skin, often seen through the lens of my own teenage daughters - pictured on seemingly idyllic holidays - lying by a sunlit pool, skiing or hiking in woodlands."

Caroline draws on her past experience as a textile designer to search for incidental patterns using a limited colour palette to simplify and stylise her work. Inspired by the sparsity, patterning and flattening of the picture plane found in Japanese woodcuts.

In 2022 Caroline began the postgraduate course The Drawing Year at The Royal Drawing School.