Caroline Bellamy

Artist Caroline Bellamy
Bio

Caroline Bellamy is an established New Zealand artist who graduated from the IIam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch in 2016. Born in Nelson, Caroline started painting at a young age and sold her first painting in the Rutherford Gallery, Nelson aged 14. Her father being a sign writer and painter and mother a medical illustrator, she has always been surrounded with artistic careers and skills.

Energetic and thick brushstrokes depict naturalistic forms in her paintings. Simplification and exaggeration of the landscape communicates an emotive atmosphere and depicts a strong sense of depth.

From the valley rivers to the mountaintop alpine tarns, Caroline is a passionate mountaineer and tramps in these remote areas, often for days at a time, directly experiencing the landscape. She then translates the experience and physical energy of the place back into her paintings in the studio, using a complexity of naturalistic colour and bold brushwork.

Caroline’s latest body of work continues to depict the South Island’s many personalities – rugged and serene, energetic and contemplative, all of which often occur within one captured landscape.

Broad, intentional brushstrokes describe restless rivers alongside still plateaus or tranquil tarns and lakes within majestic vistas.  Caroline’s unique sense of movement transports us to an untouched, private viewing of scenes that hum with tension and glow with the natural hues of our Southern land. These large-scale works in oil are rendered through the young artist’s hand, recognising nature’s ability to compose itself.

With titles that often include a moment in time, “Evening”, “Dawn”, or “Morning”, Caroline recognises how quickly time can shift these views into a different landscape entirely and brings these remote vistas to us, redefining the wilderness through her eye while inviting us to be swept up in that moment with her.

Caroline produces work in multiple media, her main medium being oil on board. Bellamy has taken on many commissions and sells her work throughout New Zealand and Internationally.

Parnell Gallery has represented Caroline since 2012.