Born in 1990, Carolin Winkler grew up in Germany, Austria, and the UK. She attended art college in Vienna, then completed a first-class BA in Fine Art at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales. She now lives in England, on the edge of the beautiful Chiltern Hills near London, working from a small home studio and her cherished garden. After realising that fumes from oil paint solvents were harming her health, she has gradually rethought her approach to oil painting, developing a solvent-free practice.
About
In some works, I am moved by complex feelings. That complexity is what is interesting and fun to work through—an untangling that happens on the canvas.
I don’t distinguish strongly between feeling and seeing; both prompt me to make marks. When working from life, I concentrate on areas that excite something in me, trusting that these moments can gradually be built into a coherent painting—whether it remains true to the original reference or shifts into something else.
I hope that the finished work feels alive and in flux: that what it shows never quite comes into focus and can reveal different facets over time. I want my paintings to hold a density of experience, built through an accumulation of marks made over many sittings.
I am captivated by the way a two-dimensional surface can compress something multidimensional—how a single painting can hold time and space within its frame. The entire history of its making exists in one moment, one place: a compact block of thought, ready to be unpacked gradually by the viewer.
In today’s world, where AI-generated imagery and digital media dominate, I see painting as an irreplaceable form of human connection. A painting carries the presence of its maker, inviting the viewer into a direct, tactile experience—something to return to, to slow down with, and to see anew each time.