Carla Raads

Carla Raads | Artist Biography

Carla Raads is a South African painter based in England, whose work explores the relationship between landscape, memory and emotion. Working primarily in oil, she creates atmospheric seascapes and expressive landscapes that capture the tension between darkness and light, turbulence and stillness.

Drawing inspiration from the raw beauty of the natural world, Raads is particularly interested in the transformative power of weather, the movement of water and the fleeting moments when light breaks through a storm. Her paintings balance expressive abstraction with recognisable elements of the landscape, using gestural brushwork, layered textures and a restrained palette to evoke places as much as the feelings they leave behind.

At the heart of her practice is an ongoing exploration of how our experience of a place becomes part of our personal history. Through her Cartography series, Raads considers landscape as a form of emotional geography, connecting physical locations with memory, identity and a sense of belonging. Geographic coordinates incorporated into her work anchor each painting to a specific place, creating a dialogue between the tangible world and its subjective interpretation.

Her work invit...

Education & Artistic Training

Fine Art & Photography — Foundation Studies
Blackpool Palatine Campus, England

Design Studies
Manchester Metropolitan University, England

Private Painting Instruction — Philippe Aird

Received private painting instruction from the late British artist Philippe Aird, working alongside him and assisting in his artistic environment.

Independent Artistic Practice

Raads has continued to develop her painting practice independently, refining a distinctive approach to expressive oil painting. Her work focuses on atmospheric seascapes and landscapes, exploring the relationship between place, memory and emotion through gestural brushwork, layered textures and dramatic contrasts of light and darkness.

Selected Exhibitions & Collaborations

2024 | International Exhibition
Jumeirah Port Sóller Hotel, Mallorca, Spain

2023 | Solo Exhibition — Sun and Soul
Amber Galleries, Henley-on-Thames, England

2023 | Porsche — Driven by Dreams
Selected as an artist ambassador for Porsche’s 75th anniversary celebrations, creating a commemorative Porsche Art Car.

2023 | Solo Exhibition
Jumeirah Port Sóller Hotel, Mallorca, Spain

2022 | Porsche — Driven by Dreams
Artistic collaboration with Porsche as part of the Driven by Dreams campaign.