Reminisce, Oil on Canvas

Charli creates paintings from reclaimed materials to explore the intersection of memory, environmental change, and responsibility. Each work transforms waste into a visual record of a world in transition, challenging the disposable culture behind ecological destruction and documenting the visible impacts of climate change.

"My artistic practice emerges from the tension of recollection, environmental urgency, and responsibility. Working predominantly with reclaimed and discarded materials, my paintings serve as acts of preservation and testimony, capturing fragile moments before they vanish."

Each painting begins with a fragment of personal experience: the changing shoreline of my childhood beaches in Cronulla, a passing landscape glimpsed through a train window, or suffocating bush fire smoke over open water. These moments become anchors for broader environmental narratives, as I document a world in transition. The beaches of my youth are smaller now, the tides higher, and childhood dreams of coastal living have been swept away by rising seas and retreating shorelines.

"My commitment to sustainable art practices extends beyond subject matter into methodology."

Every work is partially created from second-hand materials, salvaged canvases, and discarded supplies, serving as a deliberate response to the art industry's staggering environmental impact.

I'm Lost in There, Oil on Canvas

Ultimately, my practice asks: How do we hold beauty and loss simultaneously? How do we fight for what we love while working within systems that threaten it? The answer, I believe, lies in the choices we make, one painting, one reclaimed canvas, one preserved moment at a time.

As the landscape of contemporary art continues to change, so too does my practice. I strive to provoke both thought and change amongst artists today, to inspire them to use sustainable practices and challenge the consumerist culture that has seeped into modern art.

For my upcoming exhibit, I have begun to experiment with more complex materials like Bronze. Sourced from an old sailing boat, I have obtained two solid bronze ship portholes to upcycle into frames. I'm fascinated by the idea that something old can become new again and breathe new life into my landscapes. In the future, I plan to experiment with car mirrors, solid window frames and other forms of waste that could be turned into art. 

I Spy, Oil on Canvas

portholes

Porthole 2026,

Oil on Canvas framed in Bronze Ship Porthole

My upcoming exhibition, 'Portholes', presents a series of hybrid painting-sculpture works that examine the intersection of coastal erosion and the housing crisis, two converging forces that are reshaping access to beauty and belonging in contemporary Australia.

The works combine large-scale landscape paintings with sculptural frames and three-dimensional fabric curtains, creating immersive installations that blur the boundary between painting and sculpture. Each piece is constructed primarily from reclaimed canvases, salvaged materials, and second-hand textiles, embodying a sustainable practice that challenges the art industry's environmental footprint.

These works function as windows onto disappearing views, sweeping coastal landscapes witnessed from vantage points that are becoming increasingly inaccessible or vanishing entirely. The curtains frame each painting as a domestic threshold, invoking the intimate act of looking through a window.

If Only, Oil on Canvas