Cary Charles

In addition to obviously being very creative and visually oriented, I am also wheat and gluten intolerant (oh joy!) so have had to drop my vegetarian status and eat fish. I'm fascinated by film, music, museums, galleries, travel, photography etc.

I am also interested in some aspects of psychology and alternative thinking, particularly when both theory and practice are holistic. I take a very evidence-based pragmatic approach to it all. Theories are often not completely correct, so I strive to extract interesting and pragmatic elements that enhance real life. If it doesn't work in reality, well what is the point? As I strive to constantly improve myself, you could say that I have a very down to earth, onwards and upwards approach. I am not one to waste energy. I use it where it can really make a difference.

Favourite Artists:

Ruth End (painter, printmaker and friend from my home town of Cheltenham), Stephen End (also a friend - a ceramicist) . . . and more generally; Grayson Perry, Dave McKean, Georgia O'keefe, Tamara De Lempicka, Kandinsky, Kupka, Boccioni, Dali, both Delauneys(!), Escher, Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Gilbert & George, Giger, Anthony Green, Miro, Holbein, El Greco, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Braque, Cezanne, Ernst, Modigliani, Mother and Father Nature . . . oh the list goes on and on! Oh . . . and I can get really excited by my own work too! :o)

Favourite Quotes from Artists:

Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one's sensations. CezanneA work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art. CezanneTo become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams. Giorgio De ChiricoThose who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing. Salvador DaliPainting is by nature a luminous language. Robert DelauneyVision is the true creative rhythm. Robert DelauneyThe substance of painting is light. Andre DerainAll good ideas arrive by chance. Max ErnstPainting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation. Max ErnstOnly those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check. M.C. EscherClose your bodily eye, that you may see your picture first with the eye of the spirit. Then bring to light what you have seen in the darkness, that its effect may work back, from without to within. Caspar David FriedrichIf he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him. Casper David FriedrichIt is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block. Paul GaugainI shut my eyes in order to see. Paul GaugainSome people would say my paintings show a future world and maybe they do, but I paint from reality. I put several things and ideas together, and perhaps, when I have finished, it could show the future. H R GigerThere is hope and a kind of beauty in there somewhere, if you look for it. H R GigerIf you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van GoghI always pet a dog with my left hand because if he bit me I'd still have my right hand to paint with. Juan GrisI rarely draw what I see. I draw what I feel in my body. Barbara HepworthThe mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. David HockneyThe moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist. David HockneyThere is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper part of a house. Edward HopperI paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration. Frida KahloI tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling. Frida KahloThere is no must in art because art is free. Wassily KandinskyEverything starts with a dot. Wassily KandinskyAll ideas grow out of other ideas. Anish KapoorA line is a dot that went for a walk. Paul KleeColor possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter. Paul KleeOne eye sees, the other feels. Paul KleeWhatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists. Willem De KooningI have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes. Lee KrasnerPainting... in which the inner and the outer man are inseparable, transcends technique, transcends subject and moves into the realm of the inevitable. Lee KrasnerThe mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown . . . Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. Rene MagritteWhat appears spectral today will be natural tomorrow. Franz MarcWith color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft. Henri MatisseYou study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover. Henri MatisseIf people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. MichelangeloThroughout the time in which I am working on a canvas I can feel how I am beginning to love it, with that love which is born of slow comprehension. Joan MiroLet us never forget that the greatest man is never more than an animal disguised as a god. Francis PicabiaArt is a lie that makes us realize truth. PicassoBad artists copy. Good artists steal. PicassoI am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. PicassoOnly put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. PicassoPainting is just another way of keeping a diary. PicassoThe purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. PicassoTo copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic. PicassoThere is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. PicassoAs the artist picks his way along, rejecting and accepting as he goes, certain patterns of enquiry emerge. Bridget RileySilence is so accurate. Mark RothkoColor is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire. John Singer SargentEvery time I paint a portrait I lose a friend. John Singer SargentYou can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh. John Singer SargentTo restrict the artist is a crime. It is to murder germinating life. Egon SchieleThe picture must radiate light, the bodies have their own light which they consume to live: they burn, they are not lit from outside. Egon SchieleEvery picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love. Alfred SisleyThe motif must always be set down in a simple way, easily grasped and understood by the beholder. By the elimination of superfluous detail, the spectator should be led along the road that the artist indicates to him, and from the first be made to notice what the artist has felt. Alfred SisleyEverything has a sort of double meaning for me, there's the ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together . . . Stanley SpencerI want to make exalted art. A successful image has pictorial lift. I am looking for whatever is up there. Frank StellaWhat you see is what you see. Frank StellaYou see what you know. Frank StellaOne learns about painting by looking at and imitating other painters. Frank StellaI believe there is little to gain by exchanging opinions with other artists concerning either the ideology of art or technical methods. Yves TanguyThe painting develops before my eyes, unfolding its surprises as it progresses. It is this which gives me the sense of complete liberty, and for this reason I am incapable of forming a plan or making a sketch beforehand. Yves TanguyVery much alone in my work, I am almost jealous of it. Yves TanguyNovelty is seldom the essential... make a subject better from its intrinsic nature. Henri de Toulouse-LautrecIf I could find anything blacker than black, I'd use it. JMW TurnerAll our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. Leonardo da VinciEvery now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. Leonardo da Vinci