Charles Gautier

As an architect:   After obligatory army service in Berlin and elsewhere I worked as a draughtsman, bought a small ocean going sail boat and sailed from my Chichester base to London.  I lived on board for 4 years and qualified as an architect, then sailed back to my urban design appointment in Chichester.  Later I returned to London as an architect, with additional responsibility for a three-man urban design unit.  I retired as a Deputy Borough Architect in the eighties and moved in part, initially, to Granada in Spain.

As an artist: my first etching was exhibited in the RA Summer Exhibition in 1976. Thereafter I made progress with night evening groups at Chelsea Art School, Shepherds’ Bush.  I have worked in many media including etching, lino prints, collage, watercolour, acrylic, and on many subjects – urban sketches, (about 250 sketches in ten countries,) portraiture, etc.  With an International Group we have explored rapid drawing techniques for the past year (2015/16) -linked to my current exhibition – see below.

Art for me is an ongoing thing…and a passport to places and friends I would otherwise not have known.

UPDATE  may 2017. i have moved on in the past year investing more time in painting .

fast travel sketches have contiued in spanish locations..central spain and islands… and more deliberately a series of 17 large format paintings ..100 by 81 cm…. “paisajes luminosos”..based on our mountain experiences with the university of granada…my thoughts were of the evidence everywhere in this part of spain of the planet in torment 4 billion years ago.

also i am pursueing  the idea of a retrospective titled ” ARCHITECT IN TRANSITION ”  since i think we draw proffessionally to communicate precise information as architects, and to communicate in a different way as artists . myself and others explore the borders between figurative and abstract art, the compression of time and resources to release a different kind of energy and, with much more difficulty,  explore the  relationship  between creativity within all the arts. i.e is there a relationship between that piece of music ,and this painting which i have contrived to create.

regards…charles gautier, 26 may 2017, granada, spain.