About Caroline Tate
I studied Fine Arts at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London, where many of my paintings were of car parts! I started to sell my work then worked in advertising, later moving to Scotland to work in a Recording Studio, getting involved in local music and advertising on buses, tv and radio. My two sons were born in Edinburgh then I moved back to London and continued to sell my paintings. I had a daughter in 1986 and did a B.A. Degree in Education and Training and began teaching painting to many groups including Housebound Learners, the U3A, a Day Centre, Adult Education, plus helping Day Patients at a local hospice. I helped school children in the Big Draw at Guildford Cathedral and at Southwark Cathedral.
Past work includes many paintings of landscapes in Norway, Prague, Italy, New Zealand and of course many scenes in the UK. I had a year painting cathedrals, then ‘bridges of London, Prague and Paris. The emphasis has always been on light, exuberant colour and effects with texture often playing a part. I love to have several works on the go at once. Music plays a huge part in my life and I have painted over 75 paintings based on music, often that of Gustav Mahler!
Exhibitions have included 2 solo shows at the Barbican Library, at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, Putney Arts Theatre twice, Celia Purcell Contemporary, Oxon Hoath Conference and Retreat Centre, Guildford Cathedral, Landmark Festival of Song, and recently the Fountain Gallery Hampton Court, Charles Stanley Guildford, and paintings of Mahler’s music exhibited at Horsley Towers during “Visions of Heaven” weekend on the music of Gustav Mahler.
I have donated paintings to many charities to raise funds including: Walk the Walk, Sam Beare Hospice, The Princess Alice Hospice, CHASE Children’s Hospice, Breast Cancer, Oxfam and in 2010 on 7th July the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth, I auctioned two paintings of his music to raise money for In Harmony children’s music charity in Lambeth. In 2012 my 'Beethoven Tree' painting was auctioned for the 30th Anniversary Appeal of the Philharmonia Orchestra and in 2013 a painting has been donated to Save the Children Fund for a Fund Raising Auction, plus two paintings of Westminster at Night will be auctioned at the House of Commons on 3 May to raise money at a special event for 'Dan's Fund for Burns'. In 2014 I have donated paintings to WAC Arts, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, Help for Heroes, and Save the Children Fund.
Annual visits to the Verrocchio School of Art in Tuscany always inspire me hugely and I have painted many of the trees there ‘in the style of various composers’.
In 2015 I exhibited in Guildford and Kent and had a painting at Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.
2016 Exhibition at WAC Arts, several paintings donated to the Save the Children Fund Auctions, to the British Heart Foundation and a Mahler painting was auctioned at the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Silent Auction.
2017 At the Philharmonia Orchestra Gala they auctioned my painting of Sibelius’s First Symphony.
2018 Painting of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, the Resurrection, raised £2000 at the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Silent Auction and a painting of a Saxophone raised good money too!
In 2018 most paintings are based on the “energy” of trees! Donations of two paintings to the Save the Children Fund raised nearly £2000 at their Arbitration Ball.
2019-2020 - Caroline donated a number of her paintings to galas and fund raising events at the Mercers Livery Company, London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Gustav Mahler Society UK, and St Andrews Church Surbiton. All of which fetched good sums for various charitable projects. Caroline’s paintings are often very bright and vibrant mixed media of trees, and their energy! She loves the infinite shapes and sensations of trees and does sometimes link them to specific pieces of Music.