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Charlotte Thomson-Morley

A photograph of the artist Charlotte Thomson-Morley - a white woman with glasses and brown hair tied up with a heady fringe. She is standing against an orange background with a plant.

Fine Artist, Painter, Printmaker.

Charlotte Thomson-Morley (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and community arts workshop facilitator based in Nottingham (UK).

Charlotte’s work explores the interplay between body-image, nature, folklore, spirit of place & spiritual belief systems, and our sense of belonging through shared stories.

Charlotte works creates art using illustrative, figurative painting, printmaking, pigment derived from nature, and most recently, animation. Charlotte is a neurodiverse artist with chronic illness based in the East Midlands – Nottinghamshire (UK).

Charlotte runs nature and heritage themed community art workshops in Nottingham and the surrounding areas.


Gallery

Protector of the Sacred Grove

Mixed media painting based on the epithet given to the East Midlands Roman-Celtic ‘Spirit of place’ God Rigonemetis – Rigisamus ‘Protector of the Sacred Groves’.
I’m interested in how the concept of woodland guardian figures have become part of East Midlands folklore & visual identity found at heritage sites & archaeological fings. I took inspiration visually from the ‘Green Man’ as a symbolic forest protector, oak leaf motifs & fat bodied ‘mother earth’ imagery associated with Paleolithic ‘Venus’ Figures. Piece selected for the Harley Gallery Open Exhibition 2024.

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Bodies of Nature

A semi-abstract painting on watercolour paper showing leafy foliage-like structures in shades of blue and green, with a fat-bodies figure emerging from the background, they are designed to look like part of nature.
A semi-abstract painting on watercolour paper showing leafy foliage-like structures in shades of fuschia and green, with a fat-bodied figure emerging from the background, they are designed to look like part of nature.
A semi-abstract painting on watercolour paper showing leafy foliage-like structures in shades of blue and green, with a figure emerging from the background

Media-led pieces created in watercolour on paper. Each piece started with the premise of an abstract, foliage-like background, using Pareidolia (the tendancy to make meaningful images from abstract forms) to see figures in the abstract and then delineate them.

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Witch Marks – ‘What are you afraid of?’

A series of Mono-prints based on protective apotropaic ‘Witch Marks’ found at Nottingham & East Midlands Historic Sites (Including Creswell Craggs & Belton House). An exploration of superstition, religious symbology and fear of Witchcraft, linking to and encouraging discussion on the Witch Trials in the United Kingdom.

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Sew the Seeds – Speak in Leaves

Combining my illustrative digital art experience with newly learnt techniques in animation using Procreate. This piece explores the idea of ecological consciousness and connection to nature through the motif of the ‘disgorging Green Man’.

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Legends and Lace – in collaboration with JC Middlebrook.

Collaborative work combining local ‘spirit of place’ deity Trisantona (Celtic Goddess of the River Trent) with Nottingham’s industrial heritage. I created painted and lino-printed visual representations of Trisantona, which were then explored by local artist JC Middlebrook using machine-lace techniques typical of Nottingham’s industrial heritage.

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Of This Land

Circular artwork on white paper - a gold lino print of a foliate head is overprinted onto a watercolour style circular style background in black Iron Oak Gall Ink handmade by the artist. Oak leaves and roots are drawn around the circle in ink using a dip pen.
A photograph showing the artwork previously described, resting on a table next to the lino block and the iron oak call ink bottle.
The arwork previously described hanging up with picture hangers in a tree. It is surrounded by green leaves

Created using handmade Iron Oak Gall Ink, made from oak galls foraged from pavements and school yards, a natural resource in an urban environment. An exploration of recreating one of the oldest known forms of ink and an exploration of connecting to the land and our environment through understanding of nature. The Green Man motif was over-printed in gold onto the painted oak gall ink background, symbolising our reverence for nature. The gold ink is oil based and therefore problematic to nature, the oak gall ink is derived from nature but will in time corrode the very artwork it was used to create making it ephemeral, reflecting our problematic relationship with our environment.

Green Goddess – Mixed Media Painting series

A series of mixed media paintings on recycled card exploring free-painting and the spirit of nature connection through imagery inspired by folklore, myth and archaeology.

Goddess (At the Fitzwilliam)

A series of drypoint prints created in response to Goddess sculptures of different locations and historical provenance found on visiting the Fitzwilliam Gallery in Cambridge (UK).

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Goddess – Plant Based Eco Pigment Series

This series is an exploration of paints created using natural plant and mineral based pigments. A technique of free-painting was utilised, where there is only a loose plan for the artworks allowing for free response to the media during the creation process. Loosely based on early European Goddess sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf.

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Deities – in Lino

An ongoing series of graphic representations of deities created in lino with gold highlights, printed in varying limited editions onto recycled card.

Wheel of the Year

A series of digital artworks corresponding to the Pagan Wheel of the Year. The Wheel follows the 4 seasonal equinoxes and solstices and encompasses four traditional Celtic festivals, this series is currently a work in progress. The timings are relevant in the Northern Hemisphere and it was first laid out in this manner by Jacob Grimm and cemented in this format by the Wicca movement in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Stylistically these pieces are inspired by 1960’s psychedelic art and screen-printed poster art and contain references to each festivals traditions, origins and symbology.

Seasons

This series of digital paintings takes from the tradition of female archetypes representing nature but flips the narrative by depicting body types that don’t traditionally feature as objects for the male gaze in Western art traditions such as Art Nouveau. The floral motifs feature seasonal plants and are inspired by Germanic folk art.

Monsters Within

A series of digital artworks inspired by Horror movie archetypes, celebrating fat bodies and giving the subjects erotic agency over their own symbolic title.

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Sirens – Digital and Printmaking

I have long held a fascination with mythological creatures and these two pieces explore the idea of Sirens and Selkies using elements of Art Nouveau to create flowing images. This project is ongoing in it’s development with hand-carved printmaking plates being developed from the digital drawings. These will become a series of limited edition lino cuts and intaglio prints.

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