Contemplation of The Self
Words by Charlotte Sanderson
Being an undergraduate student; putting myself out there, exhibiting work and getting involved with student-ran groups such as the Norman Rea Gallery has been crucial to my personal exploration into the art world. At the moment, my main involvement with art has been as a freelance artist, working mainly as a commission-based portrait artist. As a student artist, I’ve found it super important to find a way of creating art that is practical, rewarding and most of all, enjoyable! I love working with oil paint the most, however whilst on the go at uni, and living in rented accommodation, this often isn’t the most practical way of creating art. Working with coloured pencils has become my go-to for the past few years. I’m often commissioned for pet portraits, which is perfect; not only is this achievable for me alongside my studies, but I also absolutely love it!
“Ember”, Charlotte Sanderson, 2022, coloured pencil on paper, A4, commission work.
It is certainly difficult to balance my degree, my part-time job, and my commission work with my desire to create art for myself and my personal projects, but it helps that I’m so passionate about it. I find sketching, drawing, and painting very cathartic, and so when I feel the stress building up at uni, scribbling a few drawings in my sketchbook helps me to feel much more relaxed. I feel very lucky to have been involved with the Norman Rea Gallery too, and I will miss it very much when I graduate. Being a part of a student run gallery is incredible; in my experience, it is much nicer to be surrounded by other students in similar positions to me. It’s so easy to strike up a conversation and make friends in this sort of all-student environment, and I felt so much more comfortable and confident getting involved. While this experience has been deeply valuable towards my understanding of what is to have an ‘art career,’ my time spent with the Norman Rea Gallery has also been crucial to my wellbeing and social life. At The Grand Finale, I was lucky enough to exhibit one of my largest paintings, “Contemplation of The Self.” Being able to show my work at an exhibition that I had also helped to curate and install is an incredible privilege.
“Contemplation of The Self”, Charlotte Sanderson, 2021, oil on canvas, 70cm x 100cm x 4cm.
Photograph by Charlotte Sanderson, 2024.
“Contemplation of The Self,” was initially created as part of a portraiture project, which began as an exploration into the process of ageing. The presentation and self-expression of different age groups became prominent within my work as I depicted a range of different emotions and interactions. This was initially important to me due to the volume of family and friends we had lost, or seen taken ill at this time due to Coronavirus.
“A Friends Grandma”, Charlotte Sanderson, 2021, coloured pencil on paper, A2.
As we progressed further into the Covid-19 pandemic, my artwork began to look at the ways self-expression had changed through the wearing of face coverings and masks. “Contemplation of The Self,” finds us mid-pandemic in April 2021, at which point I was studying towards my A-Levels. Amidst constant lockdowns, complete isolation, and an uncertainty about our future, I felt keen to find my own version of self-expression through my art. As well as experimenting with styles and medium, I experimented with subject. Rather than the masks we had spent the last year of our lives in, I was finding other ways to cover the faces of my portraits, such as the fabric we see here, flowers, and hands. The use of draped lace as a face covering aimed to express the familiar delicate and fragile feeling experienced through the pandemic, whilst also appearing eccentric, extravagant and performative.
Detail from the production of “Contemplation of The Self”, 2021, oil paint on canvas.
The piercing gaze looks directly at the viewer in a confrontational way and aims to ask, “who are you?” The fact that the lace covers the majority of my face in this portrait is definitely a comment on how much of ourselves we were able to express when hidden behind a mask, or a computer screen, and while this was initially a reflection on the pandemic, I think this message can certainly be applied to life before, and after (if such a thing exists?) the pandemic. This queries how much of the self is greatly changed, exaggerated, or hidden from society. The undeniable theatricality of the image lends itself well to The Grand Finale exhibition at the Norman Rea Gallery.
“Ian”, Charlotte Sanderson, 2023, coloured pencil on paper, A3.
In the future, I hope to revisit my original project ideas surrounding age and expression, as there are many more family members and relationships within my life that I look forward to depicting. The above image shows one of my most recent commissions; a recreation of a childhood photo of one of my family friends. These types of images that are clear in showing the joys of childhood are some of the inspirations I had when initially curating my project in 2021. 3 years on, I’m excited to revisit these ideas after progressing through university, and learning a lot about growing up, making friends, and above all, creating artwork.
