Visit the Studio with Caroline Burdett

With bold colors and iconic nude female figures, the work of painter Caroline Burdett has encompassed, for many of us, the feel of quarantine. Beyond these portraits, Burdett’s paintings are rich, joyful, and filled with an uncompromising use of color. Let’s join Burdett on a look into her studio and unique process crafting these bold visions.

What is your artwork about? What does it speak to?

My artwork largely speaks to the pain and beauty of the female experience. Themes around objectification and escapism make their way into my work. Other pieces are less thematic and come from a place beyond conscious explanation. For me, colors express emotion uniquely. Sometimes simply laying two particular colors next to each other or having them interact with each other on the canvas can invoke the same drama as painting something as direct as a knife going through a heart. Sometimes my abstract, seemingly formless paintings embody more of a story than the paintings with more conventional or realistic forms.

What materials do you use? And why?

For my most recent body of work, Quarantine Series, I use acrylic on canvas or paper and then a bleach mixture to lift the paint. The bleach is an important element in my Quarantine Series (more on that below) –– a material we’ve all become too familiar with these days. Previously I’d primarily painted in oil; that is until I challenged myself to complete one painting each day for a month in the spring of 2019. I started using acrylic at that point because acrylics dry much much faster than oils, allowing me to finish each painting within this challenging short period of time. I developed a familiarity with acrylic during this time so I just continued working with them beyond the completion of the challenge. And now, after producing 60+ paintings in my Quarantine Series and producing them all in acrylic and bleach I’ve started playing with oil again. However, I’m finding that my working style has sped up and is too fast for my slow-drying oils.

I love working with oils because the smell reminds me of the first painting studio I worked in, in Mexico. I was 16 and it was my first figure painting class and I think I painted oil on newsprint or something crazy like that. The studio was pretty open-air, within the desert and we were all drinking french press coffee and smoking rice paper cigarettes with no filters while painting from a live model. It was 1999 but also 1960, apparently. So the smells of oil and turpentine are so nostalgic for me –– especially now that I work outdoors in LA, which has a similar climate to that of San Miguel de Allende –– where it all started.

More on bleach: As a result of the 2020 pandemic, I started using a homemade bleach mixture to disinfect my home. While working on a painting in late March, the spray bottle happened to be sitting at the table next to where I was painting. I was working on a canvas piece and something was missing –– I wanted to add more interest, more texture. I picked up the bleach mixture, sprayed the last layer of paint I had put down and let it sit in the sun for a few moments. The surface became softened to the point where I could scrape and lift layers of paint with relative ease and an interesting texture was created. I thought to myself how fitting it was to incorporate bleach into my work during a pandemic where bleach seemed to be one of very few weapons against the virus. But, for this reason, it was also hard to come by so the act of using it within my paintings became, for me, a commentary on the selfish hoarding culture of these basic yet necessary household items that developed throughout the beginning months of the pandemic. I began using the bleach more strategically, developing a technique where I use the bleach mixture to lift layers of paint, exposing parts of the paint layers underneath, and creating a rich texture and signature style that is evident throughout my Quarantine Series.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I draw from my own experience in the world and from my experiences during moments of meditation. During my meditations, I tend to see pronounced shapes and colors. It may be due to the fact that during any given moment, I am intensely sensitive to the physical environment I am in –– the aesthetics, sounds, and smells. I am always on high alert and tend to notice things that others do not and it all feeds my creative process. I’m inspired by art, music, writing, humor, and dance that feels authentic and expressive and I am constantly absorbing it all and it all shows up in my work!

What is your typical routine when you get to the studio? Walk us through a typical studio day.

Since I moved out of my art studio and into my home studio at the beginning of the pandemic, my workday sort of blends with my home life. I primarily work on my back deck so the weather pretty much rules my routine. On hot days I bring the work inside where space is more limited. Much of the late summer so far has been spent inside and since I live in one room I spend a lot of time stepping over things and trying to find space for this and that. As I write this, I’m forced to remain indoors because the air quality is too poor to be outdoors in LA due to the wildfires. The beginning of the pandemic, when I moved out of my art studio, is when I started working on paper. Storing paper paintings takes so much less space than storing stretched canvases and is also simple to ship. Most of the quarantine series is painted on heavy paper and carefully stored flat in glassine paper in my room.

Do you work at a particular size or scale? Why?

I generally don’t work smaller than 8x10 inches. Since moving into my home studio, my work has stayed at 36x48 inches and smaller. I prefer to work much larger and am in the process of figuring out a space solution that might allow me to do that. I’m hoping to build a large frame that will allow me to hang bigger canvases (6’x6’ and larger) and also use the frame as a tufting loom since I want to start making textile art!

What are you currently working on? Share with us what is exciting to you about this most recent work.

I am currently working on some larger figure paintings and am very excited to keep pushing the scale of my work. I’m also extremely excited to get back into textile art. I went back to San Miguel when I was 23 or so and took a Tejido course back at the Instituto Allende, where I’d studied as a teenager. There I constructed rugs on the large floor loom from hand spun and dyed wool that was brought in on a donkey directly into the classroom from somewhere in the surrounding area. The colors were so bright and dreamy. I am excited to bring this more physical color and texture back into my practice and see how it influences my paintings.

Just recently I started playing with abstract landscapes again and am having a lot of fun with it. I plan to continue my quarantine Hidden Figure series as well. I love the hidden figures because, to me, they speak to the feminist themes within Charlotte Perkins’ “The Yellow Wallpaper”, which was an influential piece of literature for me growing up. Within the book, the wallpaper represents the domestic life that traps so many women. In my Hidden Figures series I am creating my own wallpaper pattern and nude female figures are hidden amongst the patterns –– I am physically placing the women within the wallpaper itself and commenting on this continued oppression of women. I first read the Perkins essay when I was 16 or 17 and it was the first time I was hearing someone put into words the oppression of women by men that I was instinctually rejecting as a young woman. I have always been a feminist at heart but because I didn’t understand many of the complexities going on around me I naturally became angry. I didn’t even really know what I was angry about or if it was ok to be angry about it. It was art that ended up helping me explore these frustrations and complexities within myself. Art continues to be my most productive tool for reconciling my feminist ideals with the world around me.

You’ve mentioned that you lived in San Miguel, Mexico for a number of years. Can you tell us more about that experience and how it has informed your practice?

I was raised in a very patriarchal family and as the only girl I really struggled within that system. I acted out and my parents didn’t know how to handle me so they sent me to Mexico –– I tried to convince them to send me to Holland instead so I could study at The Hague in the company of a longtime friend, but they said that was too expensive. So Mexico it was, which is where I first discovered and experienced art. Art became my savior, my solace in a time when I was in a lot of pain and had just been dropped off in a foreign country with no support system.

I had odd jobs while living in San Miguel, including working as a bar back, working as server and bartender at a pool hall/restaurant, and working as a cocktail waitress at a nightclub. I lived very simply; I learned how to makeshift just about anything I needed, hand washed my one work shirt every night, and hitchhiked to work by waiting near speed bumps and jumping onto the back of pickup trucks heading in the direction of town. At my first studio apartment, I turned my dining chair upside down and created a makeshift easel. I painted there at night by candlelight not to be romantic, but because the main room of my studio was without electricity. That first place was very simple. I boiled my own water for drinking too. This resourcefulness has fed and informed my practice throughout the years. I create my own process of making, I carve out my space for production, and I do what is necessary to continue my practice. I enjoy this process because I’m drawn towards problem-solving and derive a great deal of satisfaction out of finding creative solutions to problems, especially visual and spatial ones. I can’t help but think that my time in Mexico as a teenager, and my countless visits since then, have also influenced my use of color. Mexico is a bright and colorful place, full of beauty. It’s a special place to me and spending my adolescence there offered me an incredibly unique experience. And most importantly, it is where I found my most trusted companion: visual art.

Which artists most inspire you and your work?

The artists that had the most impact on me as I was studying were Lucian Freud, Egon Shiele, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, and Gustav Klimt. Those were my heroes throughout high school. Figure-based work has always resonated with me and invoked a lot of emotion. The abstract expressionists have impacted me as well, especially the female artists of that group, like Helen Frankenthaler and Grace Hartigan. What a relief to see some female artists when looking back for once! Studying art history, I had gotten used to all the male artists. Visual art is still a very white-male dominated field and I believe it’s important to amplify the voices of BIPOC and female artists. Did you know that less than 14% of art in museums and galleries are by female artists? This discrepancy is a big issue!

I made a point of visiting galleries in LA on a regular basis before the pandemic, but Instagram has been a decent substitute for discovering new artists. Some recent favorites are Sarah Faux, Anna Freeman Bentley, and Sarah Awad.

Do you balance another job in addition to being an artist?

No. God help me!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this special peek into Caroline's creative environment! Even in a virtual age, we encourage all budding collectors to take the time to connect with the artists you love directly.

We want to remind you of our awesome artist messaging feature directly on the Art in Res site––reach out now and foster that creative energy! Have more questions for Caroline on her art and practice? Follow up with her directly via our messenger. We know she’ll be thrilled to answer any questions you might have. Ask about a specific painting or about her specific process in general––either approach works!