Welcome to my world of what I like to call 'Mind Magic'
I was born in 1937 and did have some formal training at the Beckenham School of Art, but over the years I have developed and refined what seems to be a quite distinctive 'organic abstract' style.
When painting, I work almost exclusively in Acrylics. The majority of these works are large format A0 or above, but reduce well. Recently, I have been focusing on line drawings which are smaller (usually A3 or A4) but, due to the level of detail lend themselves to enlargement!. ' My main influcences are modern classical music and nature, both of which are a constant inspiration to me.
Most of my paintings can be seen as views of a world of the imagination as though through windows. One painting will usually combine ideas from several of my drawings. I think you will easily spot that I like detail in paintings! Consequently each image takes a long time to create and I use many translucent layers to build up a truly 3D effect - which is pretty labour intensive. I recognise that many artists today are only interested in simplicity but the structures of nature, whether microscopic or massive, are usually full of detail. I have for many years been fascinated by the fractal similarities of many cell growths and crystal growths and other aspects of nature. A mineral can look like a fungus or a lichen and clouds can resemble feathers or ferns. My other great love is gardening. The diversity of plant forms and colours appeals to me strongly and observing their growth and development over years has been most informative. When planting, my focus is on foliage colour, structure and texture - which means that my garden is a source of great visual enjoyment throughout the year.
A word about selecting a print type... please do not select canvas for prints of my work, especially the Acrylic paintings! The reason is that the originals are painted with Acrylic paints on flat boards. The primer was carefully applied to avoid raised brush marks. This was to enable me to produce some delicate effects, especially with transparent glazes and to achieve greater clarity. With this in mind it would be counterproductive to print these works on canvas as the texture would be intrusive and disruptive, spoiling the images.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work. My daughter Andrea helps me with the 'web' side of things as this is more her realm than mine. I am so delighted that through this means my work is able to be seen more widely - it is truly exciting to wake up and find that has, overnight, been looked at across the globe - something which I would never have imagined would have been possible years ago. If you like what you see, please do 'follow' me and share my images using the various social media buttons - and it is always so encouraging to receive feedback on work that has been done in a very isolated way over so many years.
Charles Cater
Email: contact@CharlesCater.com
Website: www.charlescater.com
Twitter: @CharlesCaterArt
Instagram: Charles.Cater
Copyright for all images - Charles Cater
Charles Cater joined Pixels.com Licensing on February 13th, 2011.
