house in Kamiyama.Acrylic on canvas.150x120cm.2011

Charlotte Brisland's paintings are cut and pasted from a personal investigation into the Modern Landscape. They comprise a series of photographs made within a given space, brought back to the studio and hacked until she is satisfied with a final composition. She talks about her work as fulfilling two purposes, the first being a play with paint and the second an observation of the world around her.

salt mountain.Acrylic on Canvas.22x22cm.2010

Landscape projects our inner thoughts, desires, hopes and dreams as much as the tragedies and struggles we have encountered. The landscapes I depict are taken from spaces past through or lived in and in some way experienced directly by me. They are selected through the lens and transported into the studio to pass through another selection process.

The painting process is never a direct one and takes me along avenues I cannot always predict. Sometimes a composition works and sometimes it doesn’t, it all relates to where the pieces go, what colour goes next to which and that is an investigation that can never end for me.

Brisland is obsessed with placing herself in locations, cultures and landscapes previously unknown to her. By living in these spaces and taking on daily work, building up a quotidian routine she steps away from role of observer. The photographs made during these periods are part documentation and part snapshot. The compositions often seem perplexing and unresolved, they act as a barrier and never appear to explain anything more than the image itself. This essential meaningless-ness reveals the removed sense of entering an unknown culture.
The painting medium allows for a lot of play which hangs on the composition. There is a continuous sense of risk within this play as large brushes are swept accross the canvas in an attempt at accurate depiction.

shutter.Acrylic on canvas.30x30cm.2010