Charlotte Sorapure Painter UK 1968

Charlotte Sorapure Painter UK 1968
Charlotte Sorapure was born in Bournemouth, Dorset, on 15 July 1968, the third of four children of Dr John Sorapure, a general practitioner, and his wife, Priscilla (née Davis), a painter and teacher. Her mother’s practice as an artist made her aware of drawing and watercolour from an early age, and she began to develop an interest in painting during her teens. At the age of 16, she went with her mother to life drawing classes taught by Sam Rabin at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design, and it was there that she studied for her Foundation Diploma (1987-88). The course that she initially followed was Spatial Design, which included some life drawing with John England, who helped her to understand, and gain a fascination for pictorial structure. As a result, she changed to the Fine Art Foundation. While at Bournemouth, she first met her future husband, Saied Dai.In 1988, Charlotte moved to Cheltenham to take a degree in Fine Art at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Art and Technology (1988-91). Her teachers included the art historian, Alan Ford, who was the first person to buy a painting from her. She produced some abstract paintings during this period, but felt that they remained purely decorative, and found abstraction to be insufficiently sustaining.In 1992, Charlotte began a three-year course at the Royal Academy Schools, in London, which resulted in a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. At the time, drawing remained an essential ethos at the Schools, and was particularly promoted by Norman Blamey and Roderic Barrett, both of whom made an indelible impression on Charlotte.Beyond her teachers, Charlotte has found inspiration in a wide range of artists, including those of the early Italian Renaissance (Giotto, Masolino, Gozzoli, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio), twentieth-century Britain (Gwen John, Stanley Spencer, Winifred Knights, Richard Eurich) and Oriental art. While at the RA Schools, she won the Richard Ford Award, and this gave her the opportunity to study in Madrid, where she came to fully appreciate the work of El Greco, Velasquez, Zurbaran and Goya, and so assimilate the dark tonalities that are central to the Hispanic visual tradition.Charlotte was a prize winner of both the Royal Academy Schools Premiums and the Nat West Awards Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. As a student, she was also twice awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1991 and 1993) and received a Project Bursary from the Royal West of England Academy (1994).
By
Music: Obon Fog - The Mini Vandals
Youtube Audio Library