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ABOUT

A portrait of Charles Inge

I was born in Rugby in the UK and my earliest memories are painting with my father.  He was a keen amateur watercolourist and taught me how to recognise paints by their taste (!) - I remember Rose Madder being particularly sweet.  Paint and colour has always been a multi-sensory experience for me.

 

I studied at the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford and on graduating received a place at the Royal College of Art.  I couldn’t make the finances work at the time so got a job as an Art Director in advertising.  For 30 years I worked with and alongside some of the world’s best directors, photographers, artists and designers.

 

On my 50th birthday I left advertising to dedicate myself to panting.  I joined the Turps Art School to re-engage myself with painting and set up a studio in Soho.  During lockdown my studio was demolished so I moved to the Isle of Wight.  I now paint in a lovely old stables and coach house, surrounded by rolling countryside.

 

I have exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery and with the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.  My work has been featured in Vogue magazine and is in the collection of Art UK.  In 2021 I won the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize.

Anchor 1
2010 - present
2010 - present

Statement

 

Lust for life is the ongoing subject of my painting.  Nature, natural forms and the changing seasons infuse my work.

Inspired by nature I work intuitively.   I work in series directly onto the canvas.  I begin my paintings  by creating a state of chaos and then, over many layers, I search for beauty within the chaos.​ The painting's history is important to me. I scratch back into the paint as much as I add to the surface.  

 

Colour provides the emotion in the work.  I think of colour in musical terms: jazzy, dancing, loud, soft, minimal, Baroque. I always play music whilst I am painting.

My paintings are a celebration of life, even if they are tinged with sadness. I do not believe you can have one without the other.

Education

 

2020  Turps Art School

1983  Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing, Oxford University (BA)

Awards

2022.  The Cult House open, Shortlist

2021. Overall winner Ashurst Emerging Artist prize

2021. Quay Arts Biennial selected artist

2020. Shortlisted for the Jackson's Art Painting Prize

2018.  Winner of the Whytham Hall. Art Prize

2016.  Winner of the Windsor and Newton Oil Painting prize, Royal Society of Marine Artists.

Exhibitions / Art Fairs

2023

HYGGE,  On the Lam, online exhibition.

Sunny Art Prize, London

2022 

The Cult House open, online exhibition

Zealous Amplify, online exhibition

"Literature" Cheltenham Literary Festival @ Spring Gallery, Cheltenham

Oxmarket Open, Chichester

Group Show.  Los Angeles

London Art Fair

"Six" selected artists at Quay Arts, Isle of Wight

Contemporary British Painting:  Paradoxes 52 Painters.  Quay Arts, Isle of Wight.

2021

Solo exhibition "Spiritus Mundi" at Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, London             

Quay Arts Biennial, Isle of Wight

Shortlist exhibition, Ashurst Emerging Art Prize, Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, London 

Turps Group Show - Thames-side Studios, London

2020

Group show. Los Angeles. 

2019

Isle of Wight Biennial, Quay Arts, Newport.

Turps Group Show - The Art Academy, London

Turps Final Group Show - Turps Gallery, London

Group Show - Hundred Years Gallery, London

Group Show - Creekside Open, London - Curated by Brian Griffiths

Supermarket Art Fair - Stockholm

2018

"Set 24".  Group Show - The Art Academy, London

Group Show. Flowers Central - Cork Street, London

"Small is Beautiful." Flowers Central - Cork Street, London

Whytham Hall Art Prize exhibition, London

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