Artwork by Blondie: Black and White Collection

A treasure trove of playful eccentricity, with a small dose of high drama, Artwork by Blondie (the pseudonym of Charlotte Smith) is a London-based artist who specialises in mixed media collage, print, and graphic design. Heavily influenced by sci-fi, fantasy and nature as well as her intensely surreal dreams, Charlotte has studied art since a teenager and graduated from University of Brighton in 2014 with an honours degree in Printed Textiles.

Artwork by Blondie was officially launched in the summer of 2020, during the first national lockdown. However, she has been creating her worlds for many years, some of which have been made into album covers from the likes of Don Broco, Gabrielle Aplin, and Gentleman’s Dub Club.

Charlotte defines herself as a “story-teller”; “My pieces are meant to be an escape from reality whilst being subtly sexy, slightly twisted and dreamy”. Propelled by the notion of escapism, her passion is to create protected, dreamy places that are an escape from reality. Creating these worlds has allowed her to transport into new dimensions; sometimes dark, sometimes vibrant, but always exciting. “I like to create places I can escape in. I want to tell stories and allow my viewers to question the scene, getting slightly lost at the same time. I like to think I’m not just any old collage artist. I want to be perceived as more than that. A lot of time, thought and soul goes into my creations. Every piece of artwork I produce is essentially a piece of me.”

Alongside the influences of nature, surrealism, and fantasy, one of Charlotte’s latest collections, a series of monochrome collages, also reflects her love of old black and white movies, which she has grown up with over the years. She lists some of her favourites to include Rebecca, The Women, Some Like It Hot, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. “Every time I sit down to watch one I feel inspired,” comments the artist. She also describes another inspiration as women; “I think women are so beautiful and like to showcase them wherever I can within my work”.

Charlotte spends weeks and weeks sifting through old magazines, books, and imagery to gather resources before creating her collage artworks. She confesses that she is a “complete magazine hoarder” and has an enormous collection, with some dating all the way back to the 1960s. Then, it’s just down to her, a pair of scissors, a scanner, and Photoshop. She also sometimes combines hand drawn illustrations too. Charlotte states; “I never know how my pieces are going to turn out! I’ve realised over time that the more I think about creating my work, the less I really feel it.”

Although this black and white series was initially created as Charlotte needed to make something without any colour to go on the wall in her living room, she loved the way the first piece turned out and decided to create a series. “I like how there are so many modern elements but they look like memories from the past,” says the artist. One particular piece in the collection, Someday, Somewhere, combines greyscale with pops of colour that makes the viewer feel like they’re jumping in and out of two timeframes and places.

The ethos of Artwork by Blondie is quality over quantity. Everything is created with an air of mindfulness and is carefully considered.  All of Charlotte’s prints are designed, packaged by hand and proudly printed in the UK, using a selection of British-sourced materials and local expertise where possible. She is looking forward to exploring new techniques and combining different mediums, such as screen printing, to bring a new dimension to her work.

www.artworkbyblondie.com
@artworkbyblondie

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