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Photgraphy by Millie Hutchings
Artist statement
"Pattern, texture and colour have always been the driving force behind my art and nature is my primary inspiration. I find comfort in the order and symmetry found in our natural environment but I also embrace the chaotic unpredictability of life and its perpetual state of flux. I am captivated by the diversity and contradiction of nature in all its glory.
My work explores a combination of these different elements and how they can work in harmony within one image. Constant experimentation with a wide variety of mediums underpins the development of my ideas and often dictates the direction of their outcomes.
The future and all of its uncertainty have become a more recent obsession. Environmental changes are inevitable as progress marches on. The biological and chemical deviations that occur in nature are the source of stimulation for my current collection of work. I want to open the viewer's eyes to the seemingly impossible!"
Artist biography
Caroline Hiron was born in Swansea, South Wales, in 1963. She has never lived far from the sea and the natural environment has been a consistent source of inspiration. Caroline currently lives in Gosport in Hampshire.
A curiosity about the visual arts was ignited within her at school by a fantastically eccentric Art teacher. Encouraged by this mentor she left school at 16 and went straight to Art college. The next seven years were a voyage of self-discovery which culminated in an M.A. in Printed Textiles from the Royal College of Art. A love of colour, pattern and texture was ingrained at this early stage. Art and Design have persistently played a part in her life so far, in one form or another.
For the last eleven years, Caroline has worked as a secondary school Art teacher, enjoying her own experience of inspiring young people to explore their artistry. However, she has recently made the decision to leave the profession to pursue her own individual, creative path.
Artist's process
Caroline's love of the natural environment has grown exponentially over time.
"Reflecting upon my own ageing process, I have developed a curiosity about the future and how that might look from a visual perspective. Perhaps a mixture of the natural and the artificial? The inevitable changes could, to my mind, be influenced by the artists and designers of years to come."
Mixed media is a fitting description to characterise the artistic style of her work, which constantly evolves through experimentation, exploration and accidental discovery. A more recent preoccupation with photography has inspired a new collection. This work explores the essentiality of trees and a variety of ways to enhance, disguise and celebrate them. Caroline wishes to provoke the viewer into considering, more carefully, the role that the "sentinels of the earth" play in our lives and to acquire an understanding of the history that they hold within them. The imperfections in nature hold a fascination for her and she has begun to explore the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy as another element of her work, imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. A recent quote that she discovered by Leonard Cohen struck an emotional chord.
"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
Though her work has been influenced by many artists throughout her life, Caroline's more recent source of inspiration has developed from artists such as Maurizio Anzeri, Hattie Stewart and Oh Myung Hee, to name but a few. Their exploration of photography as a vehicle to express their ideas has illuminated a new path for her to examine.
Constant observation and collection of visual ideas are fundamental to Caroline's ever-developing, fluidly evolving conceptions, a process that is sometimes overwhelming but always intoxicating.
Sussex Art Fairs - Brighton Racecourse, 11-13 October 2019
Southern Nature Art Exhibition - Rooksbury School, 23-27 August 2019
As seen in House & Garden (July 2019)
Spring Awakening Exhibition - Fisherton Mill, Salisbury, May 2019
The Accessible Art Show - Solent University, Southampton, 23 March 2019
Pébéo Mixed Media Art Contest and Exhibition 2018 - exhibited at the Menier Gallery, London, June 26-29 2018