Liminality
Deeper
The urban landscape has been a source of fascination, inspiration and a recurring theme throughout the work of Caroline Nina Phillips. Observational drawings and camera snapshots of the local urban environment are used as starting points for these layered, painterly works. Particularly favoured focal points are construction sites; building works; passageways and stairways. Noticeably, the chosen places are those which could be easily overlooked. It is through experiencing; looking; recording and reflecting upon such particular spaces, that Caroline Nina captures their existence and essence.
Many of the paintings are suggestive; openings entice as barriers block. Stairwells guide the viewer’s gaze from one implied space to another – beyond the physical boundary of the painting. Attracted to specific spaces that offer this potential for imagining; Caroline Nina Phillips contemplates what can be seen and the possibilities of what remains unseen. Features fascinate and draw her in with their depth and intensity. Captivated by the real, raw, gritty surfaces and atmosphere of many of the places she chooses to paint, Caroline Nina aims to evoke such qualities through her diverse colour choices and expressive, textural handling of the paint.
Oils are scraped, layered, removed; smeared, worked and reworked again and again- indicative in many ways of the process of building; of time passing; of ageing; deterioration; breaking down and of revival; reconstruction; of turning something old; damaged or worn, into something new.
