ARTIST PROFILE

Charlotte Lethbridge

  • United States (b. 1991 in Yonkers)
  • Currently in New York, United States.
  • Charlotte lives and works in New York City. She often glances down at broken sidewalks and thinks "hey, that looks nice."

ARTIST STATEMENT

My most recent group of paintings began with an exercise in restraint. Instead of giving into a pull towards a painterly and worked surface, I wanted to explore the process in a different way. So I began to look at every mark and layer and took the mistakes as they came. Simultaneously, I was studying scenes that were profoundly expressive and pronounced, but not in an immediate way. Rather than painting faces and figures, I focused on the positions of furniture and the interacting lines that make up a structure. This developed into a way of depicting something that I have always aimed to express, a feeling that is simultaneously quiet and powerful. For the last few months I have specifically circled the subject matter of swimming pools. While working on the pools I decided to title the series “Sorry I’m Late”. This frequently used phrase captures the paintings’ familiarity and vulnerability. It also emphasizes the role that time plays in many of these paintings, whether it is standing still or creeping by, as well as an unspecified feeling of absence.  

Pools tend to evoke nostalgia for childhood swimming lessons and suburban summers, but left alone they have a compelling stillness. In this I found endless depths. A quiet, empty moment caught in a setting that is most commonly a place of gathering and action results in a voyeuristic look at the unseen. This combination is set with an inexact and off-kilter representation of line. These images require the onlooker to doubt any notion of hospitality, but also to be willing to dive in. They are pools you wouldn’t want to swim in and badly built furniture. Something you know, but that is also uncertain.



BIOGRAPHY

Charlotte Lethbridge was born in Yonkers, New York in 1991. She attends The School of Visual Arts in New York City where she studies Fine Arts. Charlotte has participated in a number of small group shows including the All Island and Point o’ Woods Art Shows in Fire Island, NY, a salon show at Greenpoint Gallery, and is featured in a group show, Unstructured, at Yes Gallery until September. Charlotte has been an active member of the Con Artist Collective in New York since May 2014 and has a piece in their July show Money Shot, showcasing new members. She also spends time working at an interior design firm and a company that designs handmade textiles. Charlotte currently resides in downtown Manhattan and looks forward to graduating with her BFA in 2015.