Initially Charmaine studied photography, gaining a BA Hons in photography and multimedia from Westminster University and now after a career in photography has swapped the camera for paintbrushes!

On her travels, Worldwide and here at home in the British Isles she have always, observed, recorded and gathered ideas for paintings; however it is landscapes which provide the main inspiration for her work.

Living and working within the landscape itself in rural Essex Charmaine is exposed to its constantly ever-changing sights, sounds, light and textures, witnessing nature’s compositions and colours.

In an attempt to combine both the observed and the felt experience of nature, Charmaine uses strong, defining lines. These “mass lines” are used to connect areas of visual mass, such as clouds, shadows, and reflections; directing the viewers gaze through the composition reinforcing elements such as motion, or silence.

Influences include work by John and Paul Nash, Ravilious, Cezanne, Gauguin and more recently, still life and landscape paintings by the Scottish Colourists Anne Redpath and Samuel Peploe’