Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Dennis.
Charlotte, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Drawing and painting always interested me, and I grew up in a creative family. Art was something my parents did on their own time rather than as a source of income, but they were excited for any of us kids who wanted to pursue art, music, or theater as a career. I took art classes at school and outside of school, and made friends who also did visual art or music. As a teenager, my dream was to illustrate children’s books. I studied Visual Art at Southwestern University, and there I focused mostly on oil painting. At this point, I love both painting and illustration, and I’m pursuing both.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I make a variety of things. There are the mid-sized to large-scale oil paintings; they have a mix of blobby and geometric layered shapes that float in a hazy atmosphere. There are smaller oil paintings that explore interiors and household objects, sometimes with people or cats interacting with them. And then there are my illustrations in ink and gouache. They usually show young people hanging out outside, sharing a meal, reading – various chill activities. A lot of them are fantasy influenced – witches, mermaids, warriors, animal familiars…
I was always inspired by children’s book art like Garth Williams’ drawings, which have a ton of emotion in the facial expressions, and lovely, soft line quality. And I love painters with a domestic focus like Pierre Bonnard and Matisse. In high school, like most teenagers, I was into portraits, especially by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Elizabeth Peyton. Later I fell in love with the work of Makiko Kudo, Fairfield Porter, and Aya Takano. I think it’s always those painters who straddle the illustration and fine art boundary in some way who hold my attention, especially if involves flatness and pattern.
I’m interested in interiors, through-views, tilted perspective, and a mix of flatness and dimensionality, smoothness and texture. I love sci-fi and fantasy, and thinking about utopias. I love N.K. Jemisin and Kim Stanley Robinson. Jane Austen books and film adaptations are my comfort blankets and I’m sure they seep into my work too.
How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
I think success for an artist has three parts – satisfaction in the work you are making, financial stability, and knowing your work is being seen – that it’s interacting with people. The characteristic essential to success is probably being imaginative – having a vision for the work you want to create. I think that’s what motivates you to paint every day. And it powers the discipline it takes to reach out to other artists, and to galleries and publishers, and to stay organized.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can view my work on my site www.charlottedennisart.com or on my Instagram @charlottedennis_art. If you’re interested in commissioning artwork, you can email me at charlottedennisart@gmail.com. I do lots of portraits of humans and pets. If you want to collaborate on a show, contact me. You can find me in Austin or San Antonio.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.charlottedennisart.com
- Email: charlottedennisart@gmail.com
- Instagram: @charlottedennis_art
Image Credit:
Charlotte Dennis
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