Charles MacCarthy’s exquisitely rendered paintings bring the tranquillity and light of Flemish art to 21st century interiors. In a palette of muted ochres, greys and slate blues he captures the quiet of the empty room, the unoccupied studio, and the stillness of chairs, drawers and ceramic objects in slowly shifting light, defining ‘absence’ as a perfect and utterly peaceful state. Charles comes from a family of painters and sculptors on his French born mother’s side, and writers and artists on his father’s side, many of them associated with the Bloomsbury Group. He studied Fine Art at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1972, and held his first solo exhibition at The Borlase Gallery, Blewbury in 1978. He exhibits widely in the UK and France.