“I love beautiful paintings”

Julian Barnard, art collector and businessman,
Healing Herbs Co - www.edwardbach.org

Why your interest in Caroline’s work?
“I love beautiful paintings. She paints in oils.  Some people paint in a faint hearted way. That is not Caroline.”

I make Bach Flower remedies,  and the company is called  Healing Herbs.  It was in my quest for understanding and knowledge of the plants that I use that I went to China, to the Ming Valley. This is how Caroline went there.  The person who was our guide in China came to visit me here in Hereford, and it was then that she met Caroline.

I think Caroline is very courageous, both as a traveller and as a artist. She is there in China as ambassador for Western art and for Western thinking.   It does call forth some apprehension for anyone going there, whether people will respect and love your work. For us in the West the Chinese are so strong and so disciplined in regards to arts. We are so lax and so careless. Caroline has many of the traditional values of what art should do. Look at her—it is a great thing to go village and say ‘I will paint you’.

Why do think Caroline is better received in China than here?
In some sense, she is quite traditional, because her paintings are both figurative and yet imaginative.  There are similar elements in them that I have seen, that I know about, that are clearly recognisable in structural, mythological idea forms. I could imagine Caroline’s art would be recognised and understood better in China in the way that the more sensational forms of Western art would be foreign.

I bought a couple of Caroline’s paintings, have known about her for  over twenty years, and have watched her exhibit in Hereford.  She  been doing lots of classes and teaching work with adult groups and children. She is well known in the area.

I collect pictures. I visited her studio in Fown Hope, a most extraordinary but typically Herefordshire village, which nestles in the landscape in a beautiful way. Caroline is a brilliant photographer, and this is really important to mention, because it is all to do with how you see things. I am a photographer, and I know she takes brilliant pictures. What I like about the painting I bought is how well observed the scene is.

I bought two pictures, and both have white birds.
One is a landscape in Sri Lanka. Another is city and water scene in Kunming (China). I is a wonderfully evocative picture, because of the movement of birds and people. And a man on a punt boat moving across the water. It is the fluid, vivid and expressive things you see in the city. The other has the tranquillity you see in the countryside. Caroline’s use of colour is so amazingly strong that it needs to be seen somewhat from a distance. It bears close examination.
These are big 3 foot 6 inches by 2 foot paintings, they completely fill the wall.

Most of her work is quite large.  There were many pictures of this kind.  She paints people and landscapes both in natural settings. It is also like a dream or a mythical setting. The colour is very strong. They are powerful pictures, not by any means wishy-washy.

Some people paint in a faint-hearted way.

That is not Caroline.