Caroline Shotton Paintings

... Caroline Shotton is unabashed, not for her the self-flagellation of the artist who finds themselves in a commercial cul-de-sac, revisiting the same popular ideas again and again! No, somehow, in her cows, Caroline Shotton seems to have found a constant source of inspiration and innovation. An idea can strike at any time, and Caroline Shotton original paintings can be inspired by anything, the play of sunlight on a child’s hair, peeling paint on a disused shopfront or a visit to the herd of cows in the field at the end of the road.

Once the idea for the original painting has taken shape, Caroline Shotton often begins by applying texture to a canvas using tissue paper and primer. In fact one of the easiest ways of telling a Caroline Shotton Limited Edition Print from a Caroline Shotton Original, is by spotting this underlying texture. It is a technique regularly used by artists, notably L.S.Lowry, to disrupt the flat bare canvas, and to begin to allow shapes to manifest.

In the photograph of the Caroline Shotton Original Painting ‘Purple Haze’, see below, it is possible to see the texture quite clearly. The eyes are always last to be finished. A stray line near the eyes can turn a once friendly looking heifer into a moody moo-cow, so Caroline Shotton takes great care with these last finishing stages. Those big limpid pools must have just the right appealing look!