Charlotte attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, after which she was awarded a BA at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Art and Design. She then went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts under the keepership of Norman Adams RA, where she received a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. She has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and is the recipient of numerous prizes. Her list of portrait commissions include that of the war photographer Don McCullin for The Holburne Museum and her work is included in a large number of both private and corporate collections.
“Paintings often feed off one another. It can be helpful to switch from an observed to an invented image, as the objectivity of one and the lyricism of the other remind me that good paintings need to have elements of both. I am usually hinting at a kind of poetic awareness rather than any literal narrative – to hopefully give the viewer a sense of the underlying mood and character of a place or an object. It is a case of being constantly alert to the possibilities in potential subjects; from a humble still life, to figures or the patterns and movements in nature. Here is a group of paintings where unconventional nighttime compositions of the garden became a compelling subject. Night both captivates and unsettles. The ending of our daytime activities and the onset of darkness can paradoxically mark a period of awakening, for different parts of our psyche to emerge ... a different awareness. The shadow itself took on an independent life, interacting with its surroundings, hopefully eliciting the otherworldly quality of nocturnal settings. Form and structure have merged, melded and been simplified. The intention was not to signify the dark side of human nature but to point to a more nocturnal mode of being. Light used to be rare now it is abundant. Consequently, darkness has become precious, similar to that other precious thing, silence.” Charlotte Sorapure
