Few achieve the magical sense of mystery and romanticism than Charlotte Sorapure. Enigmatic, challenging and unique, her paintings are the antithesis of the brash popularist art that dominates the contemporary art scene. These are brilliantly crafted narrative paintings of great strength in which the artist gives full rein to her imagination.
"In my paintings" Charlotte says, "I am constantly searching for the extraordinary or the significant in the ordinary". Like her husband, with whom she shares studios, her belief in good drawing and the subtle use of tone both play a vital role in her work. The richness of earth colours, raw umber, light red, yellow ochre, burnt sienna etc, used with sensitivity and skill give great depth to her paintings. Undoubtedly there is a strangeness about her work, an ambiguity that is both delightful and inspiring. In her formal flower pieces, we see a master of restraint at work.
Charlotte's paintings possess a quiet beauty of their own, reminiscent of the still lives of Fantin-Latour. In her portraits she brings out the character of the sitter in her own unique way with tremendous, almost disturbing force, as exemplified in the now famous portrait of the war photographer Don McCullin. The viewer is left in no doubt that this is a man who has seen a few horrors in his time. This is an uncompromising portrait of pure brilliance. Once again, as with her husband, there is an element abstraction in her work which gives it an extra dimension. Inevitably, as with all artists, one has to consider influences, but here we are hard pressed. One might cite Stanley Spencer, Richard Eurich, Botticelli. She has also been intrigued by the geometric pattern and designs of Islamic art. But ultimately her work is stamped with her own personality.
She attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, after which she was awarded a BA at Gloucester College of Art and Technology followed by study at the Royal Academy of Arts, London where she received a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. She has exhibited widely in this country and in America and is the recipient of numerous prizes. Her list of portrait commissionsis impressive and her work graces the walls of a large number of both private and corporate collections.
