A Room of Their Own: Spaces and Objects of 20th Century Creatives
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Born in Scotland, Caroline Ayles has lived in London since 1988. She came to painting by an unconventional route, discovering it while raising her children and seeking a creative outlet. Having never been to art school, she studied Art History with the Open University before enrolling in adult education painting classes. It was there that a tutor encouraged her to submit a painting to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
That first submission marked a turning point. In 2000, her work was accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and she was awarded the Chelsea Arts Society Painting Prize. The recognition led to an invitation to join Portland Gallery in London's West End in 2001, followed by her first solo exhibition there the following year.
Since then, Ayles has exhibited extensively, including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Art Fair, Art London, Chelsea Arts Club, Green Gallery, Thompson Gallery, Chase Art Fair, Portland Gallery and the RAC Club. Her paintings are held in both public and private collections, including the Palace of Westminster, Wellington College, and the collection of Sir Tim Rice.
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The first time I stepped into Gala Dalí’s kitchen at Castell Púbol, I was struck by its simplicity. Dalí is often celebrated for his flamboyant interiors, yet this 1960s kitchen was private, functional and lived-in. I wanted to capture the intimacy of the space itself, the way it existed for the people who inhabited it. That painting became the starting point for a journey into the private lives of famous creatives, offering a window into the traces of their daily lives and the gestures that made their worlds human.
Farley House, home to Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, was the next step on my artistic journey. The couple’s coats and boots still lingered in the hallway, and Lee’s son, Anthony Penrose, told me it was as if they were still there, about to take the dogs for their daily walk. Writer Virginia Woolf’s spectacles lying on her writing desk at Monk’s House, and artist Vanessa Bell’s carefully arranged bedside table at Charleston, revealed real lives lived. Each room offered something tangible and intimate, a sense of life unfolding behind the work we all know so well.
Other spaces left their mark in different ways: architect Luis Barragán’s serene, almost spiritual bedroom in Mexico City, art critic Clive Bell’s fruit bowl and even the stark cell where Oscar Wilde was imprisoned. In every home I visited, or archive I entered, the objects and architecture carried the rituals and gestures of the people who used them.
My research has taken me on an intriguing adventure from England to Spain to Mexico. I have been fascinated by the webs of connection between these prolific creatives. Ernest Hemingway and Lee Miller were both correspondents during WWII, while the British collector Edward James was a patron of Dalí. Following the traces they left behind reveals unexpected overlaps and stories. In this series of paintings, I hope to share the intimacy of these rooms and objects, and the human presence that continues to linger in them.
Caroline Ayles, 2026