I have always used mono-printing as a form of drawing and a place to ground my observations: it came to the fore whilst I was studying for my fine art degree at Leeds Metropolitan University as a mature student . I was encouraged to experiment and explore printmaking and place it at the centre of my art practice. Much of the subsequent work is strongly aligned with my passion for drawing and painting the human form and portraiture. And many of the portraits and figurative compositions have developed from an obsession with my daughter who is autistic. I remain fascinated and challenged by the process of capturing her and her image in my work.
I am persuaded by the notion of a psychological distance between artist and sitter and the impossibility of truly knowing what lies below the surface. Ultimately your own emotional responses guide the process and outcome.
I am also interested in reinterpreting the natural world, abstraction, and mixing mediums such as paint, print, collage and ceramics. I love playing around with ideas and seeing what happens.I am interested in the exploration of what is in front of me, whether capturing a likeness or creating a composition which is focused on more formal preoccupations such as line, the relationship of space and form, and colour. Recently I have been exploring how to combine my figurative drawing with linocuts and other printing techniques on a larger scale.
​https://carolinemachray.com/