Carolyn Parton is primarily a sculptural painter, extending the medium through her investigation of paint as physical matter embedded with memory. Her research article Extended Traces: Tracking the impact of painter upon environment was published in 2010.

Because of a deep interest in the human potential to transform matter, her primary focus is its impact on each other and the natural environment. The accumulative traces left by human behaviour on earth, and consequently on our fellow living beings, are to her both witness and evidence. Therefore, she views the creative act as a force against destruction.

“As an artist, I feel drawn to absorb and reflect on the destruction of our shared environment through human action, making it a foundation of my process and thereby activating it on a deeper level” says Parton.

In her process, she works with the remnants of painting and art making, particularly materials that have a backstory, such as paint residue built up on the base of an artist’s turps bath over months, house paint collected on walls over decades, unwanted colour mixes from paint manufacturers, leftover cans from housepainters or spent paint tubes from artists – acclaimed and unknown, from around the world as well as in her local community. She sees this process as “symbolic of a care for the destiny of the matter we process and use in our daily lives, especially once it is no longer of use to us, and its consequent impact on the lives of others.”

Working with an approach resembling that of an archaeologist seeking to understand of human behaviour through material remains, her sculpted paint cascades, stratified paint landscapes, freely suspended paint works and clustered jewel like paint tubes, become the archive.

She has held numerous exhibitions in both South Africa and London, the most recent being Songs beneath the surface at Sulger-Buel Gallery in London. Group exhibitions include The air between us, a collaboration with Katherine Spindler at Barnard Gallery, Cape Town; Matereality at Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; and The future is female at Sulger-Buel Gallery, London.

Her work is included in collections such as The Constitutional Court of South Africa, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, the University of Cape Town and the University of South Africa permanent collections.

Parton holds Bachelor of Fine Art (cum laude) from the University of South Africa. She currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.