Carol Ann Sutherland, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, is an artist whose paintings, drawings and prints form part of an evolving narrative that has run throughout her career. 'Within This World XIV' is the fourteenth instalment in a series of solo exhibitions of the same title, ongoing since the 1970s.
The characters and places in her artworks serve as an allegory for the artist’s own life, engaging with one another in an enigmatic and captivating manner. Recurring figures – horses, angels, castles, rivers, boats and chessboards – inhabit an imagined landscape that feels both autobiographical and universal. These motifs are often playfully arranged alongside fragments of text, creating illustrated stories where horses fly and fish have legs. Through these glimpses of a fantastical yet reflective world, viewers are invited to interpret the unfolding events in their own way.
Sutherland has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows, including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, Towner Art Gallery, Mercury Gallery, CCA Galleries International, the Chicago Art Fair, and the McNay Art Museum in Texas, where her work is part of the public collection. The Royal Scottish Academy also awarded her the Meyer Oppenheim Prize.
This exhibition showcases new work made since she received the Summer Prize at the 2020 Jersey Summer Exhibition, alongside a relief work in stone and a small retrospective of studio pieces dating back to 1972.
When we sat down with Carol Ann in the gallery and listened to her talk about her work, it was very apparent that storytelling lies at the core of her practice. ‘Some people write or sing about it all,’ she says. ‘I paint it. To make sense of it all.”
Her work deeply reflects family life and personal experience, yet it always remains open and welcoming. Rather than being closed off, it creates space for viewers to discover their own reflections. Through her use of imagery and handwritten words, she invites us in, as she herself describes: ‘Make up your own story, and join me, join me in this mess.’
Her prize-winning painting from the 2020 Summer Exhibition, …and you said nothing, marked an important emotional turning point. ‘It’s purely a comment on where I was at the time,’ she explains. ‘I was very angry… when people say nothing, you have nothing to respond to. I was reading Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life – about how we cannot correct the past, how short the present really is, and how we try to influence the future even though it rarely turns out as we expect. I was furious at the time, but this little painting influenced me enough to tell myself that I could go ahead and do a solo exhibition – that I could go for it.’
This feeling of testing herself and moving forward continues to shape her practice. Some works arrive easily, while others require persistence, but each is part of her broader journey. Inspiration can come from unexpected sources – a theatrical ghost during a Peter Pan pantomime, interviews on the radio or half-remembered moments – all finding their way into the visual language of her paintings and drawings.
A typical day in her studio begins early. Preparation is an important ritual – cleaning brushes, laying out materials and scraping the palette – a routine she notes, with some dry humour, that any artist would recognise. But this physical process becomes a way of clearing her mind before the work begins, with music and the radio helping her settle into the rhythm of painting.
Balancing motherhood and art also shaped her working life. Rather than needing an empty house, she found she worked best knowing her children were nearby and safe. Her studio was often a shared family space – a playroom as much as a workspace – reinforcing how closely her life, family and art have always been intertwined.
Her approach to materials is equally flexible, she exclaims: ‘I use everything and anything.’ Charcoal, pastel, watercolour, oil paint, gouache and printmaking all feature in her practice. For Sutherland, contrast isn’t just about black and white but about balancing thin and thick, translucent and opaque – always seeking harmony within opposition.
Carol Ann’s distinctive use of lowercase titles has a personal and humorous origin. After working as an art teacher and later as an art advisor, travelling extensively across northern Scotland, the demands of constant travel left little time or energy for painting. At a crossroads, she retrained through a government programme, completing a course in typing and shorthand before taking an office job. Recalling that time with humour, she explains: ‘We were like battery hens typing on typewriters and I just couldn’t be arsed with the uppercase.’ What started as a rebellious act became part of her artistic identity – a habit that has stayed with her ever since.
This period of her life became a turning point, giving her the courage to take the train south from Glasgow to London with a cardboard portfolio under her arm, visiting Cork Street galleries and eventually meeting Gillian Raffles at the Mercury Gallery, who became her agent and an important supporter of her work. A decision that proved she was right to trust her instincts and follow her own path.
A line she recently heard on the radio while she was driving stayed with her: ‘Let those memories sleep. It made such an impact on me that I had to stop driving the car immediately to write it down.’ It resonates with the emotional arc of the exhibition – from anger and intensity to a quieter sense of acceptance – culminating in her most recent painting, moving on, which suggests resolution and the courage to let the past rest. As she puts it, echoing Seneca’s philosophy, you cannot spend a lifetime looking back. Some memories you carry, others you are permitted to let go – or simply let sleep.
Perhaps what this exhibition offers is not just a world built from memory, imagination and experience, but also permission to move through our own stories – taking what we need and letting the rest rest.
'moving on...' By Carol Ann Sutherland