CHARLOTTE.S.EVANS@GMAIL.COM
Borrowing from traditions of landscape painting, miniatures, and Medieval illuminations, Charlotte Evans’ paintings weave together memory and myth to create worlds that are both familiar and strange, comforting and sinister. These worlds are not unlike those conjured in the moments right before sleep, when your mind wanders and drifts and colours become more vivid, sounds sharpen and smells sweeten, all combining in a flash of clarity before dissolving into sleep. This is very much how Evans approaches her paintings often setting out with a few whispers of intent, following indirect paths to a place of clarity. Placing figures in the landscape, either ghostly outlines on the horizon or, with the viewpoint lowered and framed by stylized trunks and stems, intended to offer a purposeful theatricality, there are nods to Greek myth and folklore, and ancient works of art. Making a number of paintings at once- resolutions for one painting might be found in another. Evans’ paintings-often decorative, sometimes surreal- end up staged versions of worlds in which she explores our relationship to our environment, to ourselves and our families. To our identity as parents, sons and daughters, friends and lovers and how we try to find a place to belong.
British born, Charlotte now lives and works in Toronto with her wife and three kids.
UK representation www.candidastevens.com