In this film, artist and tutor Charlotte Verity reflects on what drawing can reveal about a person, and how the marks you make often say more than you expect.
A painter whose work is held in collections including the Arts Council of England and Sir John Soane’s Museum, she has exhibited widely and taught for many years. Moving between memories of early drawings and time spent teaching in places like Kew Gardens, she speaks about choosing what to look at, and how to make something on paper that feels true without trying to copy the world. She returns to drawing as a practice of close attention, and to the “wonderful feeling of being at one with what you’re doing.”
Biography
Charlotte Verity is an artist who has honed a lucid and highly specific visual process to attain truth in her work. Fastidious observation is at the heart of her practice. In contrast to the fleeting nature of her subjects, the paintings develop slowly and have a suggestion of deep space and the wider world. For decades, she has immersed herself in her garden either by painting and drawing out of doors or by bringing elements of it into her studio to observe. With this practical restraint she has cultivated a deep knowledge and intimate respect for the forms that she depicts, and in this way, her paintings, drawings and prints track the seasons and the passing of time. They become meditations on broader themes.
Since graduating from the Slade (1977) she has exhibited regularly in London with: Anne Berthoud, Browse and Darby, Purdy Hicks and Karsten Schubert. She is represented by Lyndsey Ingram. Her recent exhibition 'The Season Following' (2026) at Harewood House, Yorkshire, featured over 50 works. Recent group shows include: 'The Shape of Things' (2024), Pallant House Gallery, 'Watercolour Now' (2025), Norwich Castle Museum, 'Artist Couples: Mutual Reflections' (2025) Each Modern, Taipei, 'Looking for Appearance' (2026), Thelma Hulbert Gallery and 'Handpicked Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today' (2026), Kettle’s Yard. A two-person exhibition 'Left Hand, Right Hand' (2025), The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, was curated by Robin Vousden. Selected public collections include: Arts Council of England, British Museum, Deutsche Bank, Garden Museum, Government Art Collection, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tate Education and University College London. She has undertaken several residencies, most notably at the Garden Museum throughout 2010, and Towner (1985). She has been a visiting tutor at the Royal Drawing School since 2001.
You have to really concentrate. You can't draw casually. It is looking, staring, questioning, and noticing. And all of those things enrich one's life, whether you're doing anything about it by drawing or not."
Charlotte Verity