ELEVEN SIX WOMEN | CAROLINE BURDETT
Photography by Nyra Lang | @nyralang
Meet Caroline Burdett: a multi-hyphenate creative whose journey through art, music, and healing has led her back to the canvas with soulful intention. A visual artist living in the Hudson Valley and previously in Los Angeles, Caroline’s love for color began in her teens while studying painting in the vibrant heart of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her creative path has been anything but linear—spanning fine arts, music, psychotherapy, and back again to painting, now her deepest language. Caroline’s work explores color as emotion, intuition, and healing—bold, spontaneous, and joyfully unrestrained. As an artist, trained therapist, and now recently a stepmother, her life is beautifully layered—just like her paintings. Caroline brings the same warmth and authenticity to her wardrobe as she does to her studio, finding a perfect match in ELEVEN SIX’s Fall textures and colors to layer. We captured Caroline wearing her favorite knitwear pieces at her Woodstock studio nestled in the Catskill mountains. Read on to learn of her journey and discover the artist collaboration we created with one of Caroline’s beautiful, signature landscape art-work’s for our ELEVEN SIX Fall 25 collection.
Caroline wears the Sara Cardi in Fuchsia paired with her own jean
Can you share your background, training, and journey to becoming the artist you are today?
Art has always been my love. I grew up in a home where creativity was abundant and encouraged. I studied fine arts formally starting in high school at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and focused on painting but honestly the most transformative part of my early journey in painting was living in Mexico in my teen years, studying painting, and absorbing all the color where I lived. Throughout my 20's and 30's I lived many lives, from working musician and composer, to grad student, bartender, licensed psychotherapist (and many other jobs in between). I went through a very transformative time in 2018-2019 that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I experienced a pause that allowed me to take a macro view of my life and I very decisively made some big changes. In the process, I re-found myself and that's when I started painting seriously again.
We have a mutual love for color! Your paintings feel bold, playfully spontaneous, and generously provide color therapy to the viewer. Can you share your artistic process and how you work with color?
Color is my language! I work intuitively, layering and pairing colors until they start to speak to each other. I love the relationship between unexpected combinations—chartreuse with lavender, cobalt with rust. I think of my paintings as emotional landscapes, and color is sort of the terrain. Honestly sometimes I just get the form on the canvas just to have some structure to put the colors into. Then the process can really become about color relationships.
Caroline wears the Caroline Sweater paired with her own jeans
You used to live on the west coast prior to moving to the Hudson Valley. What prompted the move and how has each coast informed your work?
Ohhhh, I love and miss LA so much! I feel like I was reborn there and it holds a special place in my heart forever. I left LA to come to Woodstock for a 5-month residency at Byrdcliffe that ended up becoming an almost year-long residency, during which time I met my now spouse! So, I stayed and I love living here. The colors and mountain shapes are different here and I think that comes out in my work–though I think my colors are pretty California-y. I miss Californians because they're so nice! But, I also love east coasters and the culture here so it really balances out. I've never been anywhere like the Hudson Valley before. It is like a dream for me because it pulls all of this creative talent and urban sensibility from NYC but is set in the most gloriously beautiful forests and mountains. What a dream. Truly.
Caroline wears the Ava Stripe Sweater + Pia Stripe Skirt in Navy + Merlot Stripe
You have become a stepmom to two kids. How has this changed your life and the way you work as an artist?
Becoming a stepmom has taught me patience, flexibility, and a new kind of love. While I was not planning on having kids, I've gotten so much from it and I think I got really lucky with these kids because they are wonderful little humans.
My studio time is probably more intentional now since I have things like our nightly family dinners to leave the studio for. Becoming a parent all of a sudden is wild! It's such a lifestyle change but I have also maintained my autonomy in my studio practice. My studio is my space and having that boundary has been important.
Do you have anything exciting going on right now, or in the pipeline for your artworks?
Yes! I'm in a small group show at Calico in Woodstock, NY that runs through October 26, 2025. And I'm preparing for a solo show in 2026 that has not been announced yet, but stay tuned! I share updates on my Instagram page and folks can also sign up for my not-so-frequent email newsletter on my website.
Caroline wears the Aurora Cardi styled with her own jean
Where are you dreaming of traveling to next?
I have had London on my mind recently. I've never been to England but my family has a lot of history there, which is maybe where I get my predilection for cool and cloudy weather. Paris is always calling me. And I'm curious about parts of Africa. But as much as travel has been a defining value of mine for most of my life, I've been shying away from it in recent years because of what it does to my nervous system.
What is a series/movie/book you just read or watched that you loved?
I love books and I read every day. I'm usually reading a non-fiction and a fiction book and I go on years-long genre kicks. Right now for fiction I love detective novels. I'm about to finish a 5-book series by Stephen Spotswood that takes place in 1940's New York city and follows a female detective team; the senior a genius detective with an evolving degenerative disease (MS) and the junior a queer woman with a storied past and a sometimes recklessly heroic sense of bravery. I fall in love with the characters I read if you couldn't tell! And I adore non-fiction titles that cover physiology, metaphysics, and nature.
Caroline wears the Rumi Cardi + Juno Skirt in Espresso + Black
How would you describe your personal style and dressing code?
I love Fall and Winter fashion. Thinking of fashion like painting, the body being the canvas, summer fashion leaves too much unpainted for me. I like to cover the canvas in color and texture. I love a structured jean, knee high socks, a sweater over a t-shirt, with a scarf and jacket. I'm also always down for denim on denim on denim and so forth. As for shoes, it's Blundstones and sneakers for me. I don't even own a pair of heels. I live on a mountain and there's a practicality that comes with the lifestyle. I've surrendered to it with pleasure.
What does the ELEVEN SIX brand mean to you, and which are your favorite Fall pieces to integrate with your own style and wardrobe?
ELEVEN SIX feels like wearable art to me. Like that piece you know you can throw on and look polished in, no matter what else you're wearing. Their pieces are elegant and well made. I love how they blend softness with structure. I'm obsessed with their alpaca sweaters—especially the ones with sculptural sleeves. They make me feel cozy and confident. And the patterns that were pulled from my painting in this fall's collection are rocking my world. I'm in love!