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Her early work in watercolour has gradually been superseded by the use of mixed media and, most recently, traditional egg tempera.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.
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.
| Selected
Clients & Bibliography |
|
| Exotic Fruit and Vegetables | Random House |
| Seafood a Connoisseur' Guide | Mitchell Beazley |
| Fruit a Connoisseur's Guide | Mitchell Beazley |
| Seafood Odyssey | BBC Books |
| Seafood Lover's Almanac | National Audobon Society |
| Rick Stein's Seafood | BBC Books |
| Fish Stories. Eating Smart | World Wildlife Fund |
| Royal Mail | Autumn Stamps |
| Crabtree & Evelyn | |
| Penguin Books | |
