Artist Spotlight: Courtney Caroline
Artwork credit: Courtney Caroline
We are highlighting artist Courtney Caroline this month as part of our Artist Spotlight series on Unique Color. Raised in the Okanagan, a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia known for its wineries and fruit orchards, Courtney is self-taught, returning to art after working several years in healthcare. Currently based in Vancouver, she creates richly colorful, textured oil paintings with both R&F Pigment Sticks® and Drawing Oils™.
Courtney’s signature describes her as both “painter and foodie” and her work conveys a diversity of culinary experiences, featuring scenes from local restaurants, cafes, home-cooked meals, nostalgic food products, and iconic dishes from her travels. Her instagram feed is filled with juicy, close up shots of paint; scenes of her adding color and texture to paintings; and reels that would inspire anyone to pick up a paintbrush or an oil stick and dive in.
In this conversation we discuss what keeps her motivated, her shift from acrylic to oils, her list of must have colors, and dream collaborations.
Enjoy. Keep painting.
Please tell us a little about yourself. How did you get your start as an artist?
I have always been creative. I grew up sketching and playing around with different mediums. My love of painting deepened through art classes in high school and private weekend sessions with a local artist named Heidi Thompson.
“I bought my first four R&F Pigment Sticks in 2024 with money saved from an art show in Seattle, but I only started using them in 2025. At first I used them just for backgrounds, but I slowly got more creative with them. Now they’re part of my whole process.”
When it came time for university, I pursued sciences and left my creative self behind. I had been told it was hard to build a career in an art-related field. That was discouraging, but I ended up genuinely loving my six years working in healthcare until I burned out.
During my last two years in healthcare, I found my way back to art. I started painting again as an outlet to working in a heavy field. In 2023, I returned from a road trip around Sicily inspired to paint the food I had seen and tasted.
Have you always worked with oils?
I began with acrylic, painting out of my apartment with all these preconceived ideas that oils were difficult to work with and smelled terrible. The irony was that I was doing everything I could to make my acrylics behave like oils — adding gels to thicken the paint and using mediums to slow the drying time. Then I attended an artist critique and someone suggested I just try oils. A friend had previously gifted me a box of used oil paint, and that was how my journey with oils began.
Photo credit: Amber Shanti
I bought my first four R&F Pigment Sticks® in 2024 with money saved from an art show in Seattle, but I only started using them in 2025. At first, I used them just for backgrounds, but I slowly got more creative. Now they’re part of my whole process.
How do you incorporate R&F Pigment Sticks® and Drawing Oils™ into your work?
I block in sections with Pigment Sticks® in the early stages, then go in with a brush and oil paint from the tube mixed with a solvent-free gel to speed things up. Once that layer is dry, I’ve started using Drawing Oils™ to add detail and pigmentation on the final layer. I am in love with the texture of both.
Do you have specific go to colors you can't live without?
My current favorite Pigment Stick® colours include: Veronese Green, Dianthus Pink, Provence Blue, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Light, and Celadon Green. Must haves for Drawing Oils™ are Cobalt Blue, Jaune Brillant, Warm Pink, Cadmium Yellow, and Quinacridone Magenta.
What's a typical studio day like for you? What keeps you motivated?
My favourite studio days start with a swim. Then I make my way to the studio, drop off my things, and walk to a nearby café. I’ll sit there for a bit answering emails and planning out paintings on Procreate before heading back to paint. On sunny days I’ll bring my Drawing Oils™ outside. There’s something I love about painting with texture in the sunlight and watching how it interacts with all that buttery pigmentation.
Photo credit: Amber Shanti
I know you are very busy on social media, so I imagine you devote a certain amount of time each day to that.
The social media side of things honestly doesn’t have a lot of structure. Sometimes I feel like filming and sometimes I turn everything off and get completely lost in the painting process. I do feel lucky to be an artist in the age of social media. It opens so many doors, creates opportunities, and allows artists from all over the world to connect and inspire each other. But boundaries with it are important too.
Artwork credit: Courtney Caroline
Artwork credit: Courtney Caroline
Your work seems to revolve primarily around food. What are you trying to say with this subject matter? What is it about on a deeper level?
I paint food for a few reasons. It carries a lot of nostalgia, and I see it as a universal language: one that can spark unspoken conversations and bring people together around a table. I love when someone sees my work and it reminds them of a recipe their mom used to make, or an ingredient their grandma always had in a family dish.
People have recommended restaurants I should try, places to travel, ingredients to add to my own cooking. I once met someone from the town of Maldon in the UK. She pointed right at my Maldon Salt painting. I had no idea it was even a town, but it made complete sense.
The world feels incredibly divisive right now, and I want to find the common threads that bring us together. I believe food does that and bright, joyful paintings of it do too.
You often paint certain brands like Maldon Salt, Campbell’s Soup and Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes - is there a dream collaboration you want to do or food you want to paint?
I would LOVE to work with Maldon Salt. I am completely and utterly obsessed with their flaky salt. I feel like I truly find my people in a crowd when they mention they also use Maldon Salt in their kitchen. It’s sort of this cult following.
Another staple in my kitchen and packaging I love is the tin of Partanna Olive oil. I am in love with red. Any food product that is red I will paint.
You may have noticed in my paintings that I am equally obsessed with texture and often refer to R&F Pigment Sticks® as ‘painting with butter.’ It would be incredible to collaborate with a butter company in Canada or France and create paintings celebrating a shared love of butter. I could go on and on. I am obsessed with food, texture, and painting. I feel pretty lucky that I get to combine all three and share them with followers and clients.
Artwork credit: Courtney Caroline
What are you currently working on in the studio? Is there a specific goal that you have for your work?
I’m working on two new collections that feel like the next real chapter of my art career. It’s both daunting and exciting, and I can’t wait to share them. I’m also focused on connecting with restaurants and cafés locally and abroad. I am always on the hunt for fellow food lovers, and hoping to continue working with chefs, bakers, wineries, olive oil farms, and more from around the world. I’m planning to go abroad later in 2026 and early 2027, so stay tuned.
As for my creative practice, my goal is to let go even more and lean into a more impressionist style. I recently began working on a 30” x 40” Campbell’s Soup painting and it’s the most free I’ve felt on a piece. Drawing with R&F Pigment Sticks® has helped loosen me up. I want my paintings to become more imperfect and free, both in technique and colour, with even more absurdity and boldness.
I’ve always been someone who tries to control things, but what’s beautiful about art is that you can completely surrender to your creative intuition. I see that showing up more and more in my work and I want to push that boundary even further.
Artwork credit: Courtney Caroline
You can see more of Courtney’s work on her website courtneycarolineart.ca or follow her on Instagram @courtneycarolineart.