Blog

Welcome to my brand new and utterly beautiful website! I am so proud to have spent the past few months putting this page together with some extremely talented female friends and I am very excited to finally be making it live. One of the most important things for me was to make this site fit my style and personality as much as possible and to do this we have poured a lot of time and love into making it. Deciding to go self employed this year was a huge decision and one that has a rather interesting back story! Shortly after I arrived back in the UK after travelling, I clumsily snapped my ACL and tore the meniscus in my right knee. I was in absolute agony and could barely stand or walk and I spent 4 months just waiting to receive surgery. During this time I found my way back to painting, starting off with watercolour paintings of the flowers growing in my garden. My practice grew and developed in ways that I had never experienced before, I was free to create without criticism or judgement (which I have always struggled with) and I grew a largely meditative practice of painting photorealistic images. As my confidence grew I started making work for friends and family members and I was so lucky to have all the time on my hands and the freedom to make work that suited my every need. After my surgery, although my recovery was fast and I was thankfully back on my feet after just 9 days, I missed the peace I had found when painting and craved the equanimous mindset I had developed from doing something I really loved. I went back to work only a month after my surgery but soon found that I was unfulfilled in my 9-5 and made the life altering decision to leave full time employment. I was lucky enough to have had two amazing commissions booked in with very understanding clients who didn't require the artwork for a certain time. I was able to jump right into making these paintings and started my life as an artist with a couple of great projects to work on. 9 months later and I am loving my job still. I have had some incredible opportunities come up and have connected with some amazing people. However, being self employed during the times of Covid-19 is not for the fainthearted. Although I get to generate my days in a way that really suits me, I get to work for myself and do something I love doing...the art world is a complex place to live in and its often hard to get the balance right. I've realised I find it difficult to separate my work and personal life because at the moment, my studio is in the living room of my little shared flat. I try to treat my work as a full time job, making sure I wake up at the same time every day, starting at 9, taking an hour lunch break and then finishing at 5 but art is often not something you can bind to timings and regime. I have good days and bad days, and it is often mind over matter. But sometimes this can't be helped and instead of plugging away and risking the possibility of getting infuriated with the work, it's often much better to take a step back. On the other hand, I can have some really great days where I'm painting for 8-14 hours but forget about my own rituals like exercise, food and relaxation and this can also have pretty devastating effects. Im still coming to terms with the art/life balance and learning to mould my days in a way that suits me best. One thing is for certain, no days will ever be the same, and thats what I most love. The website will be regularly updated with new work, announcements and frequent blog posts to show you a little more behind the scenes. Please bear with me though while I get used to regularly documenting about my life and work...something I've never been much good at! One of the most exciting pages on the website is the events page where I will hold information for the exciting things on the horizon. At the moment I am looking forward to my first Solo exhibition at The Waterton Gallery in Fulham. I am praying that this show goes ahead (i'm booked in for July so might just get lucky) so I can showcase a really exciting body of work. Details for this will be announced as soon as I am given information but if you want to make sure you are the first to know, please sign up to my newsletter. Finally, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit this page and for supporting this small little artist who loves to paint all things beautiful. I am excited to share a little more about my practice, my thoughts and my experience as an artist on this platform. If you are able to, please share this website with anyone who seems appropriate. The more eyes that see this page and the further my art is spread, the better! Any questions, comments or ideas, please do get in contact. With all the warmest wishes, Charlotte