BA (Hons) Fine Art Graduate and Artist Charlie Love has collaborated with Middlesbrough Art Weekender the biggest arts festival in the North East to create a live painting entitled ‘Venus’, show here, filmed by Tom Sheldon. We spoke to Charlie about the pieces meaning, collaborating on this project and future plans after graduation.

Tell us about your live painting?

The work ‘Venus’ 2021 focuses on historical depictions of birth and creation. This piece makes commentary on Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ 1445 and the sanitised presentation of birth that this displays. The role of the mother is overlooked and instead this work celebrates the arrival of Venus and the arrival of love. Alan davie’s work ‘birth of Venus’ 1955 also is a painting about arrival and birth but looks towards the role of the mother. This painting shows us a raw and honest portrayal of birth. With emphasis on the womb, the place of protection, that in order to be born and to ‘arrive’, we have to leave. He consider’s the vulnerability in birth. My work ‘Venus’ 2021 draws attention to the womb, this place of protection and nourishment. I made this work to add a feminine perspective on creation, to emphasise the spiritual nature of birth that we can’t gain from a male perspective.

How did you get involved with Middlesbrough art weekender?

I won the Art weekender award which has been such a great experience I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of really interesting people and it has provided me the opportunity to make new work.

Tell us about any other projects you are working on?

Over summer I have helped with preparation for a few exhibitions which has been really fun but also really challenging.

Tell us about what you are doing now in your creative field?

I’m going on to do a masters course in Arts and Cultural Management. I want to look further into the impact art can make on the well being of a community and focus on the use art has within a culture.

How was The Northern School of Art special for you? 

I studied fine art from 2018 to 2021. Studying at the northern school of art has offered me the opportunity to network with other creatives in the area and I feel that if I had studied elsewhere I wouldn’t have had this opportunity.

Any advice for future creatives?

I don’t think I’m wise enough to be giving out advice but I would say that one valuable thing I learnt at uni was to just keep making work. Even if you have no clue what to draw or paint if you do it everyday a pattern will emerge and you’ll start to see what direction you’d like to take. Then it becomes fun.

See more of Charlies work on her instagram: @charlielove_8.

If you are interested in a career as an artist our BA (Hons) Fine Art course could be for you! Students on this course gain the technical training that will allow them to become an arts and media specialist!