There’s something quietly transformative about the art we choose to live with—how it shapes the energy of a room, reflects our inner world, and brings a story into our space. That’s exactly how we felt when we discovered the work of Caroline Pinney, a contemporary figurative artist based in Austin, TX. Her paintings are both bold and intimate, filled with color, texture, and a kind of emotional honesty that draws you in.
Pinney’s time in cities like Nashville, Richmond, and Austin weaves a sense of movement and lyricism into her work, capturing the complexity of human connection with playful, explorative brushstrokes. Her pieces feel alive—rich with feeling, yet softened by warmth—and invite us to pause, reflect, and make room for art that speaks to something deeper.
COLLECTION ‘SETLIST’: A SISTER SERIES
Music, like art, is a universal language: It grounds, inspires, provokes, heals, agitates, saddens, and uplifts every living soul. To Pinney, it is one of life’s greatest indulgences and it connects us to others, our environment, and to ourselves deeply.
Finding a new favorite song, for Pinney, is almost as good a feeling as hearing one that transports her back in time — as it does many of us. It’s a universal sensation similar to smelling food that reminds you of your childhood home, or meeting someone and feeling you’ve known them your whole life. It’s a powerful tool in navigating a decision, a log in your fire when you’re angry, or a desperate hug when you’re enveloped in loneliness.
Through her new series of painted works, Pinney conveys the feeling that music makes life make sense. It makes moments more memorable and wakes up old memories. The nostalgia and presence music evokes is powerful and often unsuspecting — the catalyst that can drop you into a moment and slow your nervous system or demand your body to move.
For Caroline Pinney, she can associate some of her most memorable experiences with a particular song or album, remembering the stack of 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s CD’s her dad gave her as a kid and listening to them on the floor of her room via a daisy-painted walkman. All of her life, she says, she has looked to music to inform unformed thoughts, quiet chaos, foster deep connections, and to guide her visual voice.
For an immersive experience, check out the below artwork while listening to the Spotify playlist Pinney built around the series, accessible here.
Charmer
Strange Behavior
Someone Who calls Me Baby
Felt It With You
In Another Life
Ghost Pepper
COLLECTION ENHANCE / DISRUPT
Caroline Pinney’s latest collection — “Enhance / Disrupt” — comments on the spectrum of social association and how its value directly impresses itself onto our physical environment. A week in Key West pulled Pinney out of her studio and onto an island riddled with lively strangers, an abundance of fresh seafood, and thriving variations of local wildlife and plants. As a physical response to her new environment, her process shifted into a contemplative state as she documented her surroundings in sketches and on film. This process informed new and modified approaches to color, line work, and iconographic visual representations supporting the concept for this series. “Enhance / Disrupt” ultimately speaks to physical awareness with regards to the company we keep — both good and poor.
Baron Stew
Feeling inspired like us? Explore Pinney’s full collection and available artwork at Tappan Collective and her official website, Caroline Pinney.
