ABOUT
I am a Scottish abstract artist based on the north-east coast of Scotland. My work explores the relationship between emotion, memory and environment through intuitive, process-led painting.
After a spell focusing on portraiture I returned to a more expansive abstract language. While my work remains rooted in human experience, I now expresses this through colour, texture and gesture—creating paintings that evoke emotional states rather than depict them directly.
Working primarily in acrylic, I build layered surfaces that develop organically over time. Guided by intuition, my process is both meditative and responsive, allowing each piece to emerge through a balance of control and spontaneity. The surrounding coastal landscape and its shifting moods subtly inform my palette and sense of atmosphere.
My work is also shaped by a personal journey of healing from cPTSD and living with Fibromyalgia, where painting has become a space for reflection and transformation. This lived experience underpins the emotional depth of my practice, resulting in pieces that invite quiet connection and individual interpretation.
Largely self-taught, I have further developed my approach through study with established abstract artists, refining a process that is distinctly my own. I work from my home studio in Scotland, where painting remains both a daily practice and a continual exploration.
CAROL'S ARTISTIC JOURNEY
Carol Mapley is a Scottish abstract artist based on the North East coast of Scotland
Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, Carol builds layered surfaces using colour, gesture and texture to create atmospheric compositions that sit between abstraction and landscape. Her practice is rooted in an instinctive response to materials, allowing each piece to evolve organically rather than following a predetermined outcome. Through this approach, her paintings become spaces for reflection—holding traces of movement, feeling and lived experience.
Carol's work often draws on an internal sense of landscape rather than direct observation. Shifts in light, weather and the surrounding coastal environment inform her palette and mark-making, resulting in pieces that evoke both expansiveness and intimacy. Themes of transience, stillness and emotional resonance run throughout her practice, inviting viewers to form their own personal connections.
After focusing for a while on portraiture, Carol returned to abstraction as a more direct and expressive visual language. This return marked a move towards greater freedom in her process, where intuition and experimentation play a central role. She works from her studio in Aberdeen.
Her work is held in private collections in the UK and internationally. For exhibition, enquiries and commissions, please get in touch via the contact page.
