FRESCO ARTIST | Charles Snell
Photo by @samuelcallenfilms
Charles is a contemporary fresco artist. He was born in 1980, grew up in the Gloucester countryside, spent time in St. Ives, Cornwall, and studied at Chelsea College of Art, University of Arts, London.
Charles lives with his wife, Lianne, and their four children, in the foothills of a mountain near Abergavenny, working from his nearby studio.
His work can be found in numerous private residences and commercial projects in the UK and Europe, from homes and hotels, to charity projects and restaurants. Charles has exhibited at Canwood Gallery, Clerkenwell Design Week, Decorex and 100% Design. He has recently been featured in Country Life and Times Property. Recently completed projects include installation of the largest contemporary fresco in the UK in MediaCityUK, Manchester; and a large kitchen fresco in a luxury residential development in North London.
Charles’ art is inspired by searching for connectedness, truth and spirituality in the modern age, by a sense of awe, and by exploration of the unfathomable. His frescoes have a bold, immersive power; a texture at once reminiscent of watercolour and tapestry, and an intensity and luminosity bordering on the transcendent or sublime. His work is influenced by practices in Action Art and Abstract Expressionism, and by artists such as Turner, Degas, Rothko, Patrick Heron and Gerhard Richter. Charles draws endless inspiration from sense of place, the elements, and the landscapes around him.
Photo by @samuelcallenfilms
A Window of Time
Charles uses lime and marble plasters, specialist hand tools, and new spray technology, to create frescoes and panels. His work is produced in a precious window of time. Once air and water meet plaster, Charles has a limited number of hours to finish a piece before his material sets (a time akin to the traditional fresco painter's giornata).
Charles is always in dialogue with his alive and ever-changing material. Each fresco is a performative installation for which he rehearses in dedicated studio practice but which always takes on a life of its own.
Creating frescoes is a tremendous physical expression. The medium requires complete commitment, quick and considered movements, and great exertion, bearing similarity to action painting.
To plaster, Charles adds pigment in sensitively mixed colours. These colours trace the energetic movements of the plaster over the canvas, and capture the spirit of the moment, illustrated in intriguing flourishes of animation.
Each abstract mark the plaster makes conveys a journey where, for a brief moment, inert material becomes active, fluid and expressive (in a sense immaterial) before setting again. This concealed narrative whispers a sense of something eternal that is uplifting, joyful and powerful.
