In her latest exhibition titled Mothering, acclaimed Scottish painter Caroline Walker turns her signature lens inward to explore one of the most universal yet underrepresented subjects in fine art—motherhood. Known for her rich depictions of women in everyday environments, Walker’s new body of work ventures into more personal territory, chronicling the silent, intimate, and often unseen labor of modern parenting.
Walker, who previously focused her practice on women in public and professional settings—such as hair salons, bakeries, and care homes—now shifts her attention to the domestic sphere, spotlighting the early stages of motherhood with a raw, unfiltered gaze. The timing of this shift is no coincidence; as a mother of two young children, Walker's creative practice has naturally converged with her lived experience.
Painting the Invisible: The Everyday Realities of Motherhood
The origin of this exhibition lies in an observation Walker made a decade ago: female artists who became mothers often found their work deprioritized and their creative pursuits dismissed. “It felt hard enough to be taken seriously as a woman artist,” Walker recalls, “without adding in this other thing—let alone making it the subject of your work.”
That “other thing”—motherhood—is now the centerpiece of her most ambitious museum exhibition to date. In Mothering, Walker captures the candid moments that rarely make it to social media feeds or gallery walls: the solitude of night feeds, the chaos of playrooms, and the quiet fatigue that shadows early parenthood. Through a mix of intimate small-scale panels and grand cinematic canvases, she paints a visceral portrait of motherhood that is as emotionally resonant as it is visually stunning.
A Visual Language of Authenticity
Walker’s meticulous attention to detail is what makes her work so immersive. Her paintings include everyday artifacts of parenting: breast pumps, baby monitors, toy-strewn floors, half-finished cups of tea. These elements are not decorative—they’re integral to the emotional texture of each piece. They bring the viewer into a space that is both deeply personal and universally recognizable.
What distinguishes Walker’s approach is her ability to balance intimacy with grandeur. Her subjects are framed with cinematic precision, often illuminated by soft natural light that imbues each scene with depth and gravity. Whether a mother is soothing her infant or collapsing into a chair after a long day, she is centered—visibly important, unignorable.
Art That Challenges Societal Narratives
Walker’s work challenges longstanding societal narratives that romanticize or sanitize motherhood. She refuses to depict only the idyllic; instead, she embraces the full spectrum of the experience. “I want to show that motherhood isn’t just about the beautiful, shareable moments,” she says. “It’s about the mundane, the messy, the constant emotional labor that goes unseen.”
This shift reflects broader conversations around the value of invisible labor, especially women’s labor, in both domestic and professional contexts. In a world that still undervalues caregiving, Mothering emerges as both a protest and a celebration—an artistic reckoning with the complexities of maternal identity.
Changing the Narrative, One Canvas at a Time
As public discourse around motherhood evolves, so too does its portrayal in the arts. Caroline Walker's Mothering isn't just an exhibition—it’s a cultural intervention. It reclaims space for the emotional, physical, and psychological labor that underpins early parenting, inviting viewers to reconsider what kinds of stories are deemed worthy of artistic exploration.
By centering the maternal experience through her distinct painterly voice, Walker not only elevates the everyday but also challenges us to look closer—to see beauty in exhaustion, strength in repetition, and art in the unspoken.