About Charlotte
Charlotte Chastain is a life-long artist living in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. A native of Thomasville, Georgia, Charlotte began her artistic endeavors as a child studying privately under the founder of the Thomasville Cultural Center. Her passion for painting became apparent during her college days when studying watercolor painting while attending the University of Georgia. Her professors recognized her talent and encouraged her to continue painting after college. Later in 2004 Charlotte returned to University of North Florida where she graduated with a Fine Arts Degree in painting and drawing, magna cum laude.
Also a master gardener, Charlotte began to apply what she had learned early on gardening alongside her mother and grandmother to her more formal training at Rhode Island School of Design/Rome, Italy. Her visits of gardens throughout the world have been applied to her landscape paintings. “I am bewitched by the beauty around me. I want to record it. There is nothing more enticing than a pathway in the garden leading to a focal point. I am as a child in a flower garden when choosing the colors for the palette of my paintings.”
Charlotte Chastain’s paintings range from intricately detailed botanical studies to much grander images of landscapes, seascapes, florals, and abstract renditions unique to her environment. Through the use of color, light, and careful observation, Charlotte captures a special strength and beauty in her distinctive realistic point of view found in her paintings. She often paints on location from live subjects, gathering her inspiration from varied plant material, beautiful gardens, winding roads, doors and windows, and amazing seascapes, sometimes referencing her original photos from her travels around the world. Charlotte’s landscapes, seascapes, and botanicals reflect the glorious mood of each varied region. Chastain's work is greatly inspired by the natural beauty of Florida’s coastline, marshes, wetlands, and rivers, and her deep personal relationship with nature appears in her paintings and inspires every stroke of her brush.
Charlotte Chastain’s award-winning work has been recognized in exhibitions throughout the United States where she has held many solo exhibitions. Her first one-woman show was in Thomasville, Georgia in 1979 and she continues to show her work throughout the southeast. Her paintings hang in many corporations and private homes throughout the United States. A long-time active member of the First Coast Cultural Center, Charlotte was recognized as the Center’s Volunteer of the Year in 2022.
