Students from Salisbury Sixth Form College explore a diverse range of subjects in this conversation with Charlotte Verity. These include the exactitude of oil painting, the importance of observation, and issues inherent in her work such as memory and the passing of time.
‘Charlotte Verity’s practice is ultimately concerned with mapping the ephemerality of her immediate surroundings. The way nature fluctuates, the seasons, the weather, the light – the life cycle of the plant life around us. As Verity works from her garden and studio, her subjects, taken from the natural world, are painted slowly over weeks and months. Vanishing moments are captured permanently. Each painting or print holds a narrative about the passage of time, an appreciation for the small marvels that can be found in nature. The curve of a stem, the colour of a flower, the formation of its petals, the matrix of branches and mass of leaves, all these delicate ecosystems of life that are moving through cycles that are both colossal and invisible.
Charlotte Verity (b. 1954), until recently worked and lived in London, and since 2022, in Somerset. After studying at the Slade School of Fine Art she was awarded the Slade Prize and Boise Travelling Scholarship. Her work resides in major private and public collections that include Arts Council England; Derby Museum and Art Gallery; the British Museum; Government Art Collection; Deutsche Bank; Garden Museum, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Sir John Soane’s Museum, London; Tate, and University College London. She has exhibited widely, most recently two solo exhibitions, Echoing Green at Karsten Schubert in London, and The Season’s Ebb at the New Art Centre in Salisbury.’ (Source, New Art Centre website https://www.sculpture.uk.com/charlotte-verity)
Find out more about Charlotte Verity here: https://www.charlotteverity.co.uk
The Roche Court Educational Trust works with over 6,000 children, young people and specialist groups annually, at both the Sculpture Park and elsewhere. We encourage an exploration of modern and contemporary art through our specialist looking, thinking & speaking approach.
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Thanks to: Dan Coggins and Zach James for co-producing this episode. Thanks also to the New Art Centre, Karsten Schubert Gallery and especially, Charlotte Verity, for generously giving her time.
This podcast has been generously funded by RSA Catalyst Award and The Arts Society Wessex.
Image credit;
Charlotte Verity
Ponder (Plumbago), 2020
Oil on canvas
90.3 x 150.5 x 3.1 cm
2ft 11 ½ x 4ft 11 ¼ x 1 ¼ in.