Neil Carroll's paintings are vibrant celebrations of his homeground, this place is his touchstone. Like many of the best landscape paintings, these are pictures not so much concerned with capturing a view as with declaring love. The vivid summer of childhood is captured powerfully in many images with cerulean blue skies and bright sunlight. Other pictures have a sub-fuse,twilit mood and ghostly figures appear like memories,half present and half not. Carroll's intimate concern for one territory follows in a landscape tradition of Constable, Bonnard,Hopper and Wyeth, all of whom found potential in the micro-study of the everyday location. His vivid colour is influenced by Cezanne and Matisse and his handling of paint is lovely,wide washes of colour broken with abstract patterns and bold decisive marks that recall Howard Hodgkin. Neil Carroll was born in 1958 at Rhymney, Monmouthshire, South Wales. He studied Art with Owen Parfitt at Bedwellty and later trained at Newport School of Art under Terry Ilott and Tom Hughes among others, and The University of Wales in Cardiff.
Dr. Peter Wakelin
Carroll’s major solo exhibition The Spirit Fired was held at Newport Museum and Art Gallery in 2004. BBC Arts and Media correspondent Jon Gower devoted a half hour programme 'First Hand' to Carroll's work and he has been included in David Buckman's Dictionary of British Artists since 1945 and also Post-war To Post-modern, A Dictionary of Artists in Wales by Peter W Jones and Isabel Hitchman. Neil Carroll's touring exhibition entitled HERE COMES THE SUN represented Wales at the International Festival InterCeltique at Lorient, Brittany in August 2010. Neil, and the printmaker Yvonne Carroll showed an exciting set of new paintings and prints at Rhondda Heritage Park for six weeks in April/May 2015. The exhibition KINDRED SPIRIT was very well received and marks their return to the South Wales Valleys. Neil and Yvonne also held a very successful exhibition TROUVAILLE at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, which ran from early January through to the end of March 2019.
Neil’s exhibition ‘HOMELANDS’ held at The Winding House in May 2023, was a personal response to his beloved home territory at the top end of the Rhymney Valley. A show of eighty paintings, it gained a great response from both locals and also visitors from much further afield.
Carroll had two of his paintings included in the Celebration of Contemporary Welsh Painting Exhibition at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery in January 2023.
Neil and Yvonne Carroll exhibited their work together in a WINTER SHOW at The Old Mayor’s Parlour Gallery in Church Street, Hereford from October to December 2023.
Neil curated a Newport College of Art themed exhibition entitled ‘FORTY YEARS ON’ which ran at Newport Museum and Art Gallery from February 3rd through to June 1st 2024.
Neil’s most recent exhibition of paintings titled ‘The Warmth of the Sun’ was a body of work inspired by his love of Pembrokeshire which had a wonderful response at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, it ran from August 7th to September 26th 2024.
Personal Statement
Painting is a true adventure for me. Paint is an expressive vehicle and there is a wonderful sense of anticipation and discovery in the manipulation of it.
I walk the landscape, and in doing so, absorb the sights, sounds and scents of nature, the weather, times of day and seasonal shifts. It is also thinking time to reflect on my practice and to focus my responses in the presence of the natural environment and the elements.
When I paint, I want this experience and my sensations to be shared and passed on. I set out to create a response to these experiences in the manipulation and handling of paint and I want to convey my emotions by speaking in paint and letting the paint speak.
Neil Carroll 2024.
Dr. Peter Wakelin
Carroll’s major solo exhibition The Spirit Fired was held at Newport Museum and Art Gallery in 2004. BBC Arts and Media correspondent Jon Gower devoted a half hour programme 'First Hand' to Carroll's work and he has been included in David Buckman's Dictionary of British Artists since 1945 and also Post-war To Post-modern, A Dictionary of Artists in Wales by Peter W Jones and Isabel Hitchman. Neil Carroll's touring exhibition entitled HERE COMES THE SUN represented Wales at the International Festival InterCeltique at Lorient, Brittany in August 2010. Neil, and the printmaker Yvonne Carroll showed an exciting set of new paintings and prints at Rhondda Heritage Park for six weeks in April/May 2015. The exhibition KINDRED SPIRIT was very well received and marks their return to the South Wales Valleys. Neil and Yvonne also held a very successful exhibition TROUVAILLE at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, which ran from early January through to the end of March 2019.
Neil’s exhibition ‘HOMELANDS’ held at The Winding House in May 2023, was a personal response to his beloved home territory at the top end of the Rhymney Valley. A show of eighty paintings, it gained a great response from both locals and also visitors from much further afield.
Carroll had two of his paintings included in the Celebration of Contemporary Welsh Painting Exhibition at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery in January 2023.
Neil and Yvonne Carroll exhibited their work together in a WINTER SHOW at The Old Mayor’s Parlour Gallery in Church Street, Hereford from October to December 2023.
Neil curated a Newport College of Art themed exhibition entitled ‘FORTY YEARS ON’ which ran at Newport Museum and Art Gallery from February 3rd through to June 1st 2024.
Neil’s most recent exhibition of paintings titled ‘The Warmth of the Sun’ was a body of work inspired by his love of Pembrokeshire which had a wonderful response at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, it ran from August 7th to September 26th 2024.
Personal Statement
Painting is a true adventure for me. Paint is an expressive vehicle and there is a wonderful sense of anticipation and discovery in the manipulation of it.
I walk the landscape, and in doing so, absorb the sights, sounds and scents of nature, the weather, times of day and seasonal shifts. It is also thinking time to reflect on my practice and to focus my responses in the presence of the natural environment and the elements.
When I paint, I want this experience and my sensations to be shared and passed on. I set out to create a response to these experiences in the manipulation and handling of paint and I want to convey my emotions by speaking in paint and letting the paint speak.
Neil Carroll 2024.
