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Painting (MA)

Caroline Perkins

a section of an image totemic

Caroline Perkins begins her work with a line or a splatter on the canvas, which leads to her innermost self, allowing memories and emotions to unravel onto the surface as a trace. This starts an abstraction of figuration with emotion and memory. Perkins creates her own mythology using the endless possibilities of thoughts and feelings wrapped up and threaded through with intertextuality, spirituality, and experiences. She creates her own language through drawing, and creating an autography. Each drawing or painting is a poem or a message of love to someone who resides in her heart as a jewel.

Perkins' work is deeply personal and reflects her own experiences and emotions. Her use of color and texture adds depth and dimension to her pieces, while her unique approach to abstraction allows for a wide range of interpretation.

After completing her undergraduate studies with first-class honors in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art in 2019, Perkins was recognized for her work and was awarded the Colarts Bursary in 2021 and a QEST scholarship in 2022, which supported her with her studies at the Royal College of Art.

Currently, Perkins is ending her studies for her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, where she has been free to push herself to explore the endless possibilities of thoughts and feelings through her work.

Caroline Perkins completed her undergraduate studies and achieved First-class honors in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art 2019

Caroline Perkins was awarded the Colarts Bursary ( 2021)

Caroline Perkins was awarded a QEST scholarship (2022)

EDUCATION

2021 - 2023  MA Painting, Royal College of Art

2017 - 2020 BA first degree from Winchester School of Art

AWARDS

2022  QEST scholarship

2021  Colarts Bursary

Degree Details

School of Arts & HumanitiesPainting (MA)RCA2023 at Truman Brewery

Truman Brewery, F Block, Ground, first and second floors

portrqit of the artist with blue hair

As I focus on the thread of memory, connected to my paintbrush or pencil, it becomes a trace as it touches the paper. The marks become a manifestation of memory, full of possibility and endless abstraction. Some are motifs, shapes, or parts of figures that come in and out of focus. The red splatters are a visceral rendering of my emotions: grief, loss, and anger. I carry this trauma deep inside, hidden behind my social mask of pleasantry. In my work, I explore the use of three sacred colors: red, white, and black. Each color carries a specific significance and meaning, which I aim to convey through my art. Red represents the earth and the life force that sustains us, while white represents the sky and the spirit world. Black represents the unknown and the mysteries of the universe. Through the use of these colors, I seek to create a connection between the physical and spiritual worlds, inviting the viewer to explore the deeper meanings and mysteries of our existence.

It turns into a trace, a manifestation of memory

Full of possibility and endless abstraction.

Some are motifs, shapes, or parts of figures

That come in and out of focus.

Red splatters, a visceral rendering of emotions:

Grief, loss, and anger, hidden behind pleasantry's mask.

I explore the three sacred colors

Red, white, and black, each with its significance and meaning

Red represents the earth's life force

White, the spirit world in the sky, gleaming.

Black represents the mysteries of the universe

And the unknown that we seek to uncover and understand.

Through these colors, I connect the physical and spiritual

journey, delve, into profound meanings, enigmatic mysteries of our existence

abstracted swan figure in a black and white with pink blood spatter and white wings
You Love Me – Oil, Tempura, Pigment on canvas
Abstracted figure of a swan ballerina in Red white and black
I am Who I am Because of you

A love letter to you

You are everything to me. You complete me, I am nothing without you. I love you with all of my heart. When you watch me dance, I feel your Joy. I dance because of you, and I cry because of you. Please never leave me. Will you stay with me? If you can, promise me you won't leave.

Birth Passion and Grief


As an aphantasiac, I access my memories in a unique way - I start with a pencil or paint and create a thread, following it like navigating through dense fog. Eventually, the memory appears on the surface, abstracted by what the surface shows me; piecing together a puzzle without knowing what the final picture looks like. Each memory is tied to a specific emotion and abstracted in its own way. 

abstracted horse with skull in blue background with embryonic twins in utero
Birth Passion and Grief

Medium:

Pigment, Tempura, oil paint

Size:

150 x 150 cm
abstractionbloodblueembryonicemotionfigurationgriefhorsepassiontwinswomb
abstracted figure in grey red pink and black
She Was Expecting to Fly – Oil pigment and tempura on canvas 150x 150cm
abstract with swan skeleton red and black pink painting
Totem of Unity – Oil pigment and tempura on canvas 150x 75cm
abstract painting of human leg swan neck and head
She Danced with Life – Oil pigment and tempura on canvas 150x 75cm
abstract painting red blue purple and red
Blood Feather and Bone – Oil pigment and tempura on canvas 80 x60 cm

Medium:

oil, tempura, pigment on canvas

Size:

various
Minotaur head in Blue with Skeleton Figured red line all the way through
Ariadne's Red Thread
Figure in the centre showing her hand as if to ward something off lots of Blue and Blood Red paint splatters
The Rape of Medusa
horses head within a circle with a Ancient Greek ruined arch and a fish tail
Poseidon's Memory

My Odyssey

As a young girl reading Greek mythology, I was struck by the injustice of the stories. Female characters were often victimized, such as the nymphs who were forced to transform into trees or streams to escape male gods pursuing them. Even Medusa, renowned for her beauty, suffered greatly, being raped and transformed into a monster. It was difficult to understand how Perseus could abandon Ariadne, who had risked everything to save him and loved him deeply, only to leave her stranded on an island and be lauded as a hero. These paintings start at the point of a pencil, thinking about the way a drawing starts as a thread -Ariadne's red thread.

Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST

https://www.qest.org.uk
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Royal College of Art

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Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
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