Charles Summers - Open Studios

Oil paintings and collages of Cornwall's interior with its landscape, trees, mosses, ferns, together with flower paintings & botanical prints.

I work in three areas: oil paintings, collage and fans.
Many of my oil paintings represent the landscapes, trees, mosses and ferns of Cornwall’s interior, while others are re- interpretations of the seventeenth century Dutch flower paintings which tell a story of luxury, expensive flowers that last but a short time, a metaphor for life, all that is mortal passes away. I always add in a few dead leaves and flowers as a reminder of the fragility and brevity of life.

The collage works on more or less the same principle. Layers of paint, paper and metallic foils, built up and then polished down, mimic the structure of the planet, changed and metamorphosed by time.

The fans are a way of transforming a useful 
object into a work of art, enabling people to be able to own an inexpensive, but unique piece of work that is also functional.

In the past I painted many detailed botanical pieces such as the flowers for which I won two gold medals from The Royal Horticultural Society. In 1986 I was commissioned to paint the flowers in Agatha Christie’s garden at Greenway beside the River Dart in Devon. I spent six wonderful months with the family on a daily basis, and I believe my botanical paintings are still on display there. Some prints will be available at Open Studios