Caroline Forward

I am an oil painter working from my garden studio in the Cambridgeshire Fens where I have lived for over 30 years.  I am self taught having drawn, painted and explored creative processes all my life, taking courses and workshops to challenge, develop and stretch my creativity.

My paintings and current interest celebrate geological formations, rock surfaces and ancient lines, inspired in particular by the North Norfolk coastline, my local Fen landscape, and the rich ecosystems, coastlines and jungles of Costa Rica.  It is the coastline or waterways where the sea or the watercourse meet the land, that liminal space, that particularly fascinates me.  The rock and geological formations that have formed have been subject to the eternal rhythm of the tide, the relentless forces of the elements, and the internal forces of the earth’s movements.  The minutiae of surface detail sits on immense global land mass. I am interested in how people inhabit and impact an environment as they pass through it, and how the ancient lines within a rock surface are witness to this, and as such the lines hold history above and beyond the physical.

Originally a figurative artist I am now working with oil and cold wax medium combining figurative and abstracted elements together within a painting. I like that the process of building layers and textures, adding and subtracting, hiding and revealing has an archaeological feel to it, relevant to my subject and themes.

My work is held in private and corporate collections across the world, has been published (Portraits for NHS Heroes, 2020, and the Cambridge Art Book, 2017) and I exhibit regularly in the UK.

This year I have had work selected for the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries, London, Cromer Artspace Open 2024, Wisbech Gallery Open 2024, Tarpey Gallery Open 2024 (and 2022 and 2023), AKA Fine Art Open Calls, (2023-2024) and shortlisted for the Sir John Hurt Art Prize.

I exhibit annually with Riverside Arts groups of artists as part of Cambridge Open Studios. I have exhibited in different group exhibitions over the years at The Old Fire Engine House Ely, and Babylon Gallery, Ely, and with OuseLife group exhibitions including at Ely Cathedral (2016, 2018, 2022)

Website: www.carolineforward.co.uk

Instagram: @CarolineForward