Apres Atget Nenuphars

Apres Atget Nenuphars by Carla Groppi. 

Turquoise blue water lilies, portrait. Pastel on paper. 

Carla Groppi was born in London in 1958 and still works and lives in the British capital to date. She completed a First Class BA (Hons) Degree in Painting from The City and Guilds of London Art School.   For her vibrant pastel and charcoal drawings Carla gets inspiration from early modern photography, and particularly from the urban, 1900s photographs taken by Eugene Atget in Parc de Saint-Cloud.   

"After three years working exclusively from Atget, I now also work from other photographers such as Winogrand, Steiglitz and Missone, and along with photographs, use images taken from film and tv as starting points for my mostly large scale drawings. Finding images in different media, photography, film and TV, taken in another period of time, and translating them into large-scale charcoal or pastel drawings is what compels me. I see my drawings as translations, attempting to capture something from the original while imparting something new of my own."   

Carla has exhibited internationally for decades. In 2015, Groppi won The Hugh Casson drawing prize at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.