Charlotte Bernays

Charlotte Bernays is a sculptor and installation artist based in Wivenhoe on the Essex coast. Her work explores movement, change and the transformation of energy. The installations are often playful, with structures that dance and whir, drawing on phenomena found in nature such as tidal movement, the flocking of birds and the shoaling of fish, while other pieces, delicate and intricate, deal with experience such as grief and loss.

She was born in Sussex in 1952 and studied for a BA (Hons) in 3D Design in Bristol. She worked for Christine Edzard at Sands Films over many years, making costumes and props for the film and ballet versions of The Tales of Beatrix Potter at Covent Garden, for The Nutcracker in 3D and for the BBC series Scarlet and Black, and made sculptural models for Godfrey Design Group. She has taught sculpture, printmaking, drawing, painting and ceramics at every level, from young children to postgraduates.

She has had solo shows at The Minories in Colchester and at The Sentinel Gallery, where she showed sculpture, installation and drawing. She has also shown at Keats House for the bicentenary of Keats' birth and with the British Haiku Society at the Barbican Library Gallery. She has illustrated books by David Cobb and Martin Newell.