Charlotte Yates

Yates’ recent work explores living between two landscapes: rural England and coastal New Zealand. Moving between the green fields and hedgerows of Oxfordshire and the coastline, native bush, and distinctive light of New Zealand—often within the same year and in opposite seasons—has led her to reflect on transition, belonging, and feeling at home in more than one place.
Yates returns to motifs such as solitary trees, open farmland, and distant horizons, observing how they change over time. Walking footpaths across Oxfordshire fields or coastal tracks in New Zealand, she is drawn to crossing thresholds and inhabiting in-between spaces. The paintings and drawings trace movement between places and explore connections that persist despite geographical distance.
Yates’ family background in the seed trade has shaped her interest in growth, change, and renewal. Through the work, she seeks a visual language that can hold both separation and connection, acting as a bridge between the two worlds she inhabits.
The work moves between observation and memory, drawing on seasonal walks, remembered views, and sketches made on site. Yates works across painting and drawing, allowing different processes to inform one another. The resulting images balance intention with chance, reflecting the shifting nature of place, memory, and identity.
Underlying the work is a belief that beauty and truth are closely connected. Rather than seeking resolution, she is interested in holding moments of uncertainty, tension, and hope—such as arriving in a familiar landscape that has subtly changed—and allowing the process of making to reveal what lies between them.
@charlotteyatespictures