Caroline Shotton
Widely-acknowledged for her wacky, yet intrinsically detailed and unequivocally admired compositions that place cows in surreal contexts, be they of a political, historical or popular culture nature, contemporary humour artist, Caroline Shotton has recently widened her circle of creature features and turned her artistic hand to the preoccupation of giraffes, zebras and camels.
If Shotton’s accumulative successes with her latest animal incarnations are anything like the much celebrated cow compositions, then she’ll be on to another winner. The winning combination of not only imagining, visualising and setting to canvas these unique cows, but then affording them such witty titles has always placed Shotton at the forefront of her profession, and marked her out as, arguably, one of the more quirky, dare we infer, eccentric of the mould of the quintessential British artist, which in itself is more often than not considered, ‘out there’, and boundary pushing.
Shotton cites her influences as being diverse to say the least, ranging from her earliest inspirations of the old masters – having spent a good part of her youth visiting galleries in London – together with her exposure to the enthralling compositions personified by the more mind and perception-expanding movements of Surrealism, Dadaism and Impressionism. The latter arriving courtesy of her studies at famed London school of art, Central Saint Martins. On graduating, Shotton opted to become a freelance artist, and worked on commercial projects, creative briefs and commissions for a variety of clients. However feeling a sense of creative restriction, Shotton took the gamble of investing her time, money and creative energies into her own bespoke, signature work, and ultimately opening her very own gallery in which to base herself.
Shotton describes how she typically approaches her work, confirming that she has a clear vision of what’s going to appear on each canvas, in the direct aftermath of compiling the required reference material relating to the subsequent painting’s general ambience, alongside of roughing out some preliminary thumbnails to create the feel that she’s looking for. She tells of sketching straight onto the canvas, urging the study to develop of its own accord. Shotton frequents layers of paper, paint and varnish so as to exaggerate specific areas and enable a tactile surface on which to administer the nucleus of the piece itself. Shotton’s work evolves via the construction of almost abstract layers of primer, tissue and then large blocks of colour, prior to the application of the telling brushstrokes themselves.
Shotton also talks of the importance of not overdoing the background attention to detailing, as it has the potential to compromise the actual, physical manifestation of the core subject matter itself. A layer of varnish and paint is applied to the complete canvas near the completion process, before she works on the finer points of the comical animals, ensuring that eyes and other crucial features are presented accurately, courtesy of the finest of brushstrokes. Shotton concludes that the eyes are the most important element, which can determine the entire character and personality of both the animal and feel of the composition as a finished work of contemporary art.
If Shotton’s accumulative successes with her latest animal incarnations are anything like the much celebrated cow compositions, then she’ll be on to another winner. The winning combination of not only imagining, visualising and setting to canvas these unique cows, but then affording them such witty titles has always placed Shotton at the forefront of her profession, and marked her out as, arguably, one of the more quirky, dare we infer, eccentric of the mould of the quintessential British artist, which in itself is more often than not considered, ‘out there’, and boundary pushing.
Shotton cites her influences as being diverse to say the least, ranging from her earliest inspirations of the old masters – having spent a good part of her youth visiting galleries in London – together with her exposure to the enthralling compositions personified by the more mind and perception-expanding movements of Surrealism, Dadaism and Impressionism. The latter arriving courtesy of her studies at famed London school of art, Central Saint Martins. On graduating, Shotton opted to become a freelance artist, and worked on commercial projects, creative briefs and commissions for a variety of clients. However feeling a sense of creative restriction, Shotton took the gamble of investing her time, money and creative energies into her own bespoke, signature work, and ultimately opening her very own gallery in which to base herself.
Shotton describes how she typically approaches her work, confirming that she has a clear vision of what’s going to appear on each canvas, in the direct aftermath of compiling the required reference material relating to the subsequent painting’s general ambience, alongside of roughing out some preliminary thumbnails to create the feel that she’s looking for. She tells of sketching straight onto the canvas, urging the study to develop of its own accord. Shotton frequents layers of paper, paint and varnish so as to exaggerate specific areas and enable a tactile surface on which to administer the nucleus of the piece itself. Shotton’s work evolves via the construction of almost abstract layers of primer, tissue and then large blocks of colour, prior to the application of the telling brushstrokes themselves.
Shotton also talks of the importance of not overdoing the background attention to detailing, as it has the potential to compromise the actual, physical manifestation of the core subject matter itself. A layer of varnish and paint is applied to the complete canvas near the completion process, before she works on the finer points of the comical animals, ensuring that eyes and other crucial features are presented accurately, courtesy of the finest of brushstrokes. Shotton concludes that the eyes are the most important element, which can determine the entire character and personality of both the animal and feel of the composition as a finished work of contemporary art.