I live in a wee Hamlet with my husband, our two Labrador dogs and a cat and paint full-time in my studio, in a beautiful rural location in the hills near Biggar in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. I am very proud of my son Lindsay who is now training to be a Michelin Star Chef at The Jesmond Dene House Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne.

I was involved for many years in collaborations with scientists who "explore and explain the world of plants" (RBGE). I felt it was important to explore ways in which artists, scientists and community could work together to combat pollution and raise awareness about sustainability and other environmental issues. However,  since I gave up lecturing at Edinburgh College of Art in 2008, I have had the freedom to explore and work on my own and now use this wealth of past experience to paint large and small canvases inspired by landscape, the Scottish weather, the incredible changes in light, dramatic skies, beachcombing and the sea.

I spent the past twenty five years in various collaborations with my brother, Dr. Andy Taylor, a mycologist and currently a research scientist at the Hutton Institute in Aberdeen. This collaboration between art and science culminated in two exhibitions during 2003 and 2004, at Linnaeus’ Hammarby, Uppsala, Sweden. I received an Arts and Humanities Research Board Award for research within the Royal Botanic Garden, in Edinburgh. This research exchange and the continued collaboration I have had with my brother  led me to a collaboration during 2009, funded by a Knowledge Exchange Grant hosted by the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, again, with my brother and Soil Scientist Dr. Rebecca Artz.

As a result of my research year at the Royal Botanic Garden I made several sets of limited edition signed giclee prints made from; Micrographs of dissected plant specimens taken through a scanning electron microscope; Victorian dried flower specimens from the RBGE Herbarium, photographed through Light microscopes and Wood engraving Prints. I often incorporate dried plant specimens, or sand, seaweed, mud etc from the landscape I am painting in, into my paintings. I generally use a wide variety of mixed media including water colour, acrylic paint, canvas, Linen, paper, graphite and collage.

The research year at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh gave me the opportunity to lay down a fundamental research base that will inform my work for many years to come

Recent exhibitions include solo shows: Summer 2013  Dawyck Botanic Gardens, Scottish Borders for 3 months and a 4 month show at the Art Work Room Gallery in Moffat; 2014  a 6 month show at The art work room gallery in Moffat.  2015 a large solo show of my dried flower specimen microscopic photographs at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Hill House Gallery in Helensburgh and a solo exhibition for 7 weeks of my new sea paintings at the Dancing Light Gallery, Lamancha.  

I take part each year in the Biggar Little Festival Artists Open Studio trail and was invited to be their guest Artist in 2014 which involved exhibiting paintings in the Gillespie Centre in Biggar. www.Biggar-little-festival.com

I can be contacted by email on castaylor7@gmail.com or mobile phone 07769628820

You can also view my art work on my Artists Facebook page at Carol Taylor Artist