artist + art curator



Portraits

2010 - Present
Influenced by Barkley Hendricks, Alice Neel and Kehinde Wiley, my portraits combine traditional and more playful elements together.  I tend towards female sitters, presenting women as subjects not objects and tend to contrast coventional poses with vibrant hues and contrived environments. 

Birthday suit [2024], oil paint on canvas, 121x91cm
This self-portrait marks turning 35, gaining my Australian citizenship, and completing my Masters in Art Curatorship. Wearing a bold, pink satin suit, I present myself not as muse, but as author. The work claims space for female subjectivity and self-determination. It resists passive depiction, asserting a feminist narrative where the woman is not object but agent—sovereign, seen, and in command of her image—like the Queen of Pentacles I find myself secure and stable.




Modern Mermaid - portrait of Sheree Marris [2017], oil paint on canvas, 102x76cm The Matriarch - Michelle Esbenshade [2015], oil paint on canvas, 122x91cm 17. The Star - Gayle Maddigan [2015] ,oil paint on canvas, 172x120cm Susan Zurbrigg [2010], oil paint on canvas, 91x61cm(approx.) The bigger the hair, the bigger the ego - self portrait [2010], oil paint on canvas, 150x120cm (approx.)



Repoussoir

15 May - 01 June 2019
Trocadero Artspace
Inspired by drapery used as a compositional element in classical painting, to lead the eye of add drama; the framing has now become the subject.

Explored in rich detail and lush colour, the tension of the suspended object leaves no room for narrative outside the title. Instead, the viewer is left wanting for the tale to unfold.



Image: Repoussoir, installation view, Trocadero Artspace 2019.

Selected work from the show:

Tableau for a tragedy (2019), oil on canvas, 122 x 178cm At the adoration (2018), oil on canvas, 40 x 30cm Stage for a meeting of lovers (2019), oil paint on canvas, 91.5 x 122cm In fair Verona (2019), oil on canvas, 91.5 x 61cm



Odyssey in Neon public art installation

Watton St. Weight Station, Werribee
1 - 31 December, 2017
Odyssey in Neon is a site-specific installation consisting of a red neon sign reading ‘O Muse’, installed in the historic weighbridge on Watton Street, Werribee, Victoria. The phrase references the opening line of Homer’s Odyssey, in which the narrator invokes the Muse—the divine embodiment of creativity—to help tell the story of Odysseus’s long and arduous journey home from the Trojan War.

O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus,
sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who,
after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy,
was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men,
the sport of their customs, good and bad,
while his heart, through all the sea-faring,
ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home.
Vain hope – for them.
The fools!
Their own witlessness cast them aside.
To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun,
wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return.
Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse.
– from Homer’s Odyssey, translation by T.E. Lawrence 
This work was part of RED | Redux, the 2017 iteration of Wyndham City Council’s annual public art activation of the Werribee City Centre, which featured bold, dynamic red artworks as part of the festive season celebrations.

©2025 Caroline Esbenshade

caroline@cesbenshade.com
Acknowledgement 

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the country on which I live and work and their connections to the land. I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Indigenous peoples today.