Air, Water, Wings
Charlotte Greene Richards
Artist’s Statement—After painting waterfowl in various forms, Charlotte turns to a gestural approach with free-form strokes in her current series. Flying colors, drips, washes, spatters and the bird form all create energy and movement that set the waterfowl free. They grow highly mobile through abstract spheres of blues, whites, and greens which they nonchalantly don or discard. Her work represents a combination of painting and drawing, stroke and line color that is transparent and opaque.
This current work is inspired by the artwork of two abstract expressionists, Emil Schumacher and Elaine De Kooning. By looking at their paintings, Charlotte was able to envision a new way of painting, a freer application of paint and non-representational mark-making. Her paintings grew more abstract and larger to give the birds greater space to move.
Unlike her earlier paintings of waterfowl, Charlotte’s current work is filled with shore birds that are gliding, flying, taking-off, and landing. She employs thick and thin line drawing, paint scraping, fresh brushstrokes of swirling colors and pressed plant life—all of which contribute to the texture and total effect. By freeing her waterfowl, she liberated her painting style.
Biography—Charlotte Richards is an award-winning artist who lives in the Fredericksburg area. She exhibits her artwork at the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, where she also serves as a docent.
A retired high school art teacher, Charlotte taught in Spotsylvania County for nearly 40 years. In 1991, she was honored as the Virginia Art Education Association’s High School Art Teacher of the Year.
She holds a Master in Interdisciplinary Studies in Painting and Crafts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a B.S degree from Appalachian State University in Studio Art.
