Carys Wilson - artist under the spotlight

As part of grish art's ongoing promotion and support of artists and creative professionals, we are posting a series of 'artist case studies' of which this is the first. We are proud to present Carys Wilson, a UK based practitioner who has recently employed grish art to design and construct caryswilson.co.uk

Carys Wilson outlines her practice and promotion techniques below.


"My practice is based primarily within drawing. Paintings, printmaking and 3D work are all derived from drawings, and in turn feed back into further drawn imagery. I am influenced by natural objects found in my surroundings and immediate environment where ever I happen to be. This organic matter has provided a source for observational studies of form, line, depth and structure. These images are then pushed around on the canvas: relationships between lines, shapes and colours are brought to the surface, and patterns retrieved. The original subject matter becomes purely a starting point as other more painterly elements surface.

Our human relationship with nature, or sometimes lack of, is a constant factor in my work. I equate the hand made, the well-crafted, signatory and drawn mediums, with nature. I want my paintings and drawings to flow, mirroring the beauty of nature, a record of layering, reflecting the enjoyment of observing, yet also simultaneously to jar and feel fractured. I sense a push and pull between leaving an organic object behind and letting the drawn line take over. I use charcoal, pencil, ink, oil bars on paper, oil on canvas producing mostly 2D images. Drawing is the basis for everything.

I get people to visit my website through putting a link to it with every email I send out to anybody. I have business cards that have strong images on them that are the same as ones prominent on my website, and the lettering on the cards matches the red theme of the website. The website is on my CV, and I advertise myself and my site through Saatchi website and North Devon Arts websites. I also use reciprocal links from other artists' websites to my own.

My website is my main tool of communication when applying for exhibitions and residences. I recently secured a project with a dance / theatre group in London through my website and also have a pending group show 'The Great Create' in South Devon. Images of my work on my website definitely helped me secure a space in this exhibition along with a recent group show 'Women's Art Show 2008' in Fairfield Arts Centre, Bas.

I am currently in the midst of selling a couple of large pieces to someone in America who saw my website, and decided to ship a fair quantity of work across which is fantastic! The website has been really useful in acquiring school workshops. It's great that I can build up a decent amount of experience and document it all on this site and I think it is generating me more work.

I am not taking advantage of the updating of my website. I know it is really important that I do, as I have missed out on putting up a couple of things that I was involved in, that have now been and gone, so I didn't make use of my website in this way. This has been due primarily to lack of my own computer and lack of Internet - now I have both these facilities I intend to make full use of this updating system. I also might need to make use of grish art's online tutorial if this is still on offer! I'm not great with computers so this has also been part of problem - but one I intend to rectify!

Other marketing material? The website is my main tool, but business cards are really important too. They have been really useful for giving out to groups / individuals during seminars and small business discussions I have been too recently. I am in the planning process of getting sets of postcards / posters made of my work, although this is still in the preliminary stage at moment. I would aim for there to be a connection with layout / colours of website to maintain a professional and consistent artist identity."

Thank you to Carys Wilson for her marketing case study, we are sure it will help a lot of other creative professionals. If you are a creative professional or practicing artist then please contact us at grish art and we can help you.