Caroline Bell is an ceramic and encaustic artist based in the beautiful Whangaripo Valley just out of Matakana, Auckland. Caroline describes how she learnt how to throw pots , build sculptures and paint in encaustics by taking various classes and workshops in Auckland. She has since then found her own way and creates unique intuitive pieces and paintings.

With ceramics Caroline works in stoneware clay, mostly hand building but sometimes throwing on the wheel and altering the shape. Being drawn to highly textural surfaces and organic forms her vessels have multiple layers of slips and special effect glazes which give a complex representation of colour and shape making each piece an original.

Turning to encaustic painting Caroline describes her style as a loose organic abstract inspired by nature, gardens, geological and water formations. Caroline finds painting in wax to have both a translucent and textural quality as it is laid down in layers and fused forming unexpected shapes. Carving down into these layers allows a glimpse of colour and perhaps a familiar form from beneath.

Caroline likes to work intuitively and quickly becoming engrossed in the creative process in her quiet rural studio. She sees her art as a personal meditation , quieting the interference of the mind.