Charlotte Wensley

I’m Charlotte Wensley, a 2D abstract mixed media artist living and working near Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

I created my first large expressive work at age 4, on the living room wall, having been left unsupervised with only a limited supply of paper and a box of crayons. I’ve been exploring art making as a way to communicate with the world ever since!

I spent hours as a child absorbed in drawing, but experimenting with new ways to expand my creative horizons began in earnest in my late teens, encouraged by my high school art teacher to explore sculpture and large scale painting. In subsequent years I believed I was destined to be an illustrator as I returned to my drawing practice after school and developed a passion for writing and illustrating stories for children.

After finding myself wholly unsuited to a Diploma in Advertising, I came to art college in my twenties and there, I found a love of mixed media and collage along with methods of construction, being exposed to metalwork, woodwork and silversmithing as part of my degree.

I returned to my 2D practice, working with oils and acrylics, after emigrating to Australia from the UK in 2001.

Global wanderings have infused my visual aesthetic with a love of rich colours; texture and ornament; structures and forms; and the contrast between natural and constructed environments.

Diversity of human experience and the reality of unique personal narratives have always held a particular resonance for me and these thoughts are never far from my mind as I paint.