🌿 February Feature Artist – Caroline Reid

This February, we’re delighted to feature Caroline Reid as our artist spotlight. Her evocative artwork Tors of Namadgiappears on the February page of our Natural History Art Calendar, capturing a deep connection to place and the quiet strength of the Namadgi landscape.

Caroline is a contemporary landscape artist living and working in Canberra on Ngunnawal Country, Australia. Her practice is deeply rooted in the rugged semi-alpine landscapes that surround her home — a region shaped by mountain ranges, weather systems, and the quiet persistence of the natural world.

Although Caroline has been a practising artist all her life, a long career in science and industry policy meant that art remained something she returned to in the margins. Following career burnout and profound environmental grief, she turned to plein air painting as a way to recover — physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Through sustained time outdoors, painting directly from life, she found healing in the life force of the land itself.

Caroline is especially drawn to the Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko National Park, and the wilderness areas of Namadgi National Park near her home. Water — as a life-giving presence — is a recurring element in her work and a key way she understands and responds to landscape. Her paintings are infused with reverence, curiosity, and a quiet joy born from attentive looking.

Sunshower at Namadgi, Soft Pastel.

Self-taught outside formal university study, Caroline has invested decades in refining her practice through mentorship with master artists, including master pastelliste Marla Baggetta, alongside countless hours at workshops and at the easel.

Caroline's box of Soft Pastels.

Her work is held in private collections internationally and has been recognised through numerous awards, including the 2022 USA BoldBrush Abstract Painting Award. She has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and has completed artist residencies in Venice, France, Greece, and Australia, with an upcoming residency on Vancouver Island in 2025.

Caroline works from her home studio and gallery in Canberra, conducts regular solo exhibitions, and offers one-on-one tuition in soft pastel techniques. She is a valued member of the NatureArt Lab teaching team.

Artist Statement

Homeland Landscape Paintings

My love of the semi-alpine region surrounding my home — where I ramble with my three dogs and sometimes paint outdoors when the weather allows — infuses my work with respect, wonder, and reverence for the earth.

I am captivated by gathering clouds over the Brindabellas, summer storm cells, and frost-covered grass that glitters like diamonds at dawn. The land heals me in the process of painting it. Through my work, I hope to bring the sensations, energy, and quiet restorative power of the natural world into your home, painted with a child-like, unjudging joy.

Snow after Fire, Soft Pastel.

Caroline's Art Beginnings

It all began with ants.

As a small child growing up in Western Australia, I remember lying on hot sandy ground, utterly fascinated by red bull ants busily constructing their underground world. I watched worker pairs meet and communicate, others hauling twigs and clumps of wet earth like living cement.

I wanted desperately to understand what was happening beneath the surface. When curiosity got the better of me — and an ant bit my toe — I ran home howling. While my mother patched me up, she simply said, “Draw it for me.”

So I did.

I drew tunnels, ants, dirt balls, hidden chambers — and something clicked. Ever since, I’ve been fascinated by land, earth, water, and what lies beneath the surface. Dirt and mud and weather still make me feel at peace.