The drawings and paintings of Caroline Fulton
are portraits,
animal portraits.
These portraits are an attempt
to confront the term animal
used by people to signify the notion of an absolute other:
whatever lives on earth, which is not me,
as a human.

Her work is a rejection
of generality
and an exploration and embracing of personality
and particularism,
extended to the other life forms with which we share our planet.

The paintings depict each subject within different
families of beings
and evoque the presence of these individuals
which have names, therefore a soul and a story.

Human cultural elements are referenced
as part of the pictorial habitat,
providing a contextual framework for
each species she devotes a series to;
Elephants woven into a collage of Indian motifs,
or Rhinos coloured by the pattern making of Southern Africa.

Living presently in Morocco
Caroline has most recently focused
on the ubiquitous Donkeys and Camels.
These portraits typically show the subject within
an environment of
the Berber carpet patterns and intricate plaster and tile work
found in Moroccan homes and streets.

While the paintings immediately strike one with their
richly decorative aesthetic,
the symbolic colouration and traditional ornamentation
is deliberately employed
to create an atmosphere that expresses and reveals the soulfulness
of each Animal subject,
conveying a sense of both their familiarity and exile
in a predominantly human world.