on a roll Painting by Charlotte Evans

‘I have an ever-increasing collection of found images and of photos I’ve taken. Some promote ideas for paintings, others I search for and gather in the process of making work. They help reinforce and settle ideas. They are a valuable resource but I have no intention of making paintings of photographs. I will make drawings from them, referring to them only briefly, preferring to work from memory. I return to many of them, those favourites, to layer and combine with new ideas and images. Every time you look at an image, it’s a little different from what you remembered. The paintings too, will often change and become something quite different from what I thought I would make. Sometimes I simply get a better idea. Making a number of paintings at once- resolutions for other paintings will be found. Based on some small reality, on things seen and remembered, threads of narrative emerge. Unlike photos, memories, like repeatedly retold tales, distort and become exaggerated over time. Colours become more vivid, sounds brighter, smells sweeter. Images and memories combine and new worlds emerge, finished paintings idealized versions of where I began.’ Charlotte Evans (b. 1981, UK) studied fine art at Byam Shaw School of Art (now part of Central St. Martins, UAL) in London. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has shown extensively in the UK and at international art fairs and more recently, in New York in both solo and group shows. Her work is held in public and private collections around the globe including those of the UBS bank and the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection in the UK.