Charlotte Knox

A graduate of the Ruskin School of Fine Art & Drawing in Oxford and the St.Martins School of Art in London, Charlotte Knox is the epitome of an artist-scholar. With an established reputation for her detailed and luscious rendering of natural objects, she likes nothing more than compiling carefully researched material that is honestly and meticulously rendered, but with an artist's eye for design.

Her early work in watercolour has gradually been superseded by the use of mixed media and, most recently, traditional egg tempera. An early commission was Exotic Fruits and Vegetables, written by the eminent food writer Jane Grigson and published by Jonathan Cape.

The search for less familiar subject matter afforded the opportunity at that time for Charlotte to scour her local ethnic produce markets for subjects. The resultant book with its now trademark design and layout helped establish a bourgeoning reputation. Interesting to note that these "less familiar" foods and produce are now commonplace in our supermarkets.

This was followed by collaboration with Alan Davidson, the archetypal food academic for his broad ranging and definitive work Seafood, A Connoisseur's Guide & Cookbook. Published by Mitchell Beazley, the stunning full-page, life size paintings serve as both species identifier and an aesthetic delight. A purist in her approach, Charlotte favours the use of the actual specimen, but because of the nature of that particular subject matter, there were some difficulties in obtaining fresh subjects. Friendly airline pilots bearing gifts from exotic locations and the family freezer helped to find a way around that particular dilemma. Notices pasted for the family reading 'Don't eat!' were utilised to prevent the disappearance of valuable specimens from the freezer before they were painted, while a porbeagle shark had to be kept in the garden pond overnight to keep it fresh and a live spiny lobster returned each evening to the sea in a closed lobster pot whilst on holiday in Southwest Ireland. 

The success of this major undertaking led to a companion volume, Fruit, A Connoisseur’s Guide and Cookbook, which produced an equally luscious and seductive collection of illustrations of nearly 300 fruit and nut species from all around the world. It was awarded the WH Smith Illustration Award, and the work was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum. A very successful selling exhibition was held of the artwork of both Fish and Fruit in a West End gallery.

Since that exhibition, Charlotte's original artwork has been much in demand by collectors around the world and she has a ready market for her original paintings. Her own website www.charlotteknox.com shows original artwork that is for sale. Alternatively you can contact us.

Whilst always eager to devote herself to the demands of a long and well-researched project, Charlotte is delighted to undertake shorter and more immediate commissions like packaging, that utilises her eye for detail and meticulous craftsmanship. The packaging that she has produced for Crabtree & Evelyn is typical of this genre with its fine balance between the authentic and decorative, as was the poster that she executed for the London Underground, a commission that is always coveted br artists, with its long tradition of using the best artists.

As is the work that she has done for a series of bookjackets for Penguin Books in the re-packaging of Jane Grigson's definitive series of cook-books.



A set of postage stamps for the Royal Mail, in it's series of Seasons, Charlotte Knox's paintings for the Autumn set produced a great deal of plaudits. The demands of creating designs that work at that restricted size proved a challenge for Charlotte, as it has for the myriad eminent artists that have been given this prestigious commission. The result was that her jewel-like paintings, with their intensity of colour were stunning and were voted the most popular set of stamps of the year.

As consummate as she is in her traditional and craftsmanlike approach to her art, Charlotte is always prepared to experiment with materials and technique. Whilst retaining the best of a traditional approach, she has at the same time embraced new technology and with her enquiring mind has developed a method of using computer imagery for the development of her preliminary colour sketches. As well as being of interest in their own right, these preliminary sketches are susequently used by Charlotte as a means of designing with infinite variety, before she commits to the final finished painting that is then so carefully and lovingly rendered. A perfect marriage of craft and technology and a.n object lesson to the Luddite approach taken by some traditional artists reluctant to harness the real advantages of modern technology as an aid to their craft.

More recent commissions have included two BBC books with the fish writer Rick Stein, and a book for the World Wildlife Fund about the endangered species of fish of the Galapagos Islands. After all this time she now has a collection of nearly 300 edible fish, crustaceans and shellfish illustrations which,as well as her library of fruit and vegetable paintings are all available for reuse. We are happy to agree a usage fee.