In the lobby of The Broadwick Soho, flanked by ornate floral wallpaper, Murano glass chandeliers and pistachio velvet sofas courtesy of interior designer Martin Brudnizki, Charlotte-Rose Smith is busy planning her next cultural excursion: a trip to Madrid to spend time with the sprawling works of Hieronymus Bosch at the Museo Nacional del Prado. Despite meeting barely five minutes ago, she extends the invite - a testament to her happy-go-lucky character and cool-girl amiability.
It’s a fitting location to interview an artist. Upstairs, the private dining rooms are decked in original works by Andy Warhol - one of the creative’s primary sources of inspiration, while hedonistic 70s disco-chic décor sends buttoned-up types running for the hills. Curled up in an eccentric corner of Berwick Street sporting a brunette Jane Birkin fringe, a Breton striped tank top, a Tiffany & Co. heart tag and her signature lick of winged eyeliner, the 28-year-old’s appetite for endless creative stimulation is immediately apparent.
© @annemariesterian
© @annemariesterianThere’s an irony to this scene, being that Charlotte wasn't even permitted to study art at school by her parents. Yet look at her now. With an exhibition on the horizon, one which she describes as her most vulnerable yet, and a career spent traversing the Atlantic between New York and London, our latest cover star seems to be doing just fine - despite ignoring the advice most creatives are given by their family at some point: to play it safe rather than charge heard-first into the gloriously unstable world of the arts.
“If someone tells me no, it'll make me want to do it even more,” Charlotte says when reflecting on her family’s words of caution. “I think - ‘Okay, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to prove you wrong." Bear in mind, this counsel came from the lived experience of her mother, who is also an artist. Born in Aberdeen but raised in the Bedfordshire countryside, she describes her childhood as “feral,” with days spent roaming rural farmlands and quite literally touching grass before the dawn of social media. Her school story is textbook - the self-professed “weird kid in the corner” who stayed clear of cliched cliques in favour of quiet, where she could pen poetry and plot her future coming-of-age novels. A degree in creative writing soon followed, yet it was only when lockdown hit that Charlotte picked up a paintbrush.
The result? A kaleidoscopic arsenal of work that marries sex, satire and storytelling, now housed in her north London home-slash-studio where we lensed the artist for her cover. Whimsical watercolours sit alongside Pop art-inspired collages that deliver cutting dialogues on consumerist culture via duplicate Marmite jars, deconstructed packets of Marlboros reds and Camel Lights. Subversive pieces citing Shakespeare read more like curio boxes, while illustrative graphics are spliced with sketchy texts that act as a looking glass into the artist’s romantic life.
© @annemariesterian“I live amongst the art - I think it's just part of me,” she says of the space. “The work is like an extra limb, it's an extension. I personally love being surrounded by that, because I like to work in the in-between moments - like seeing what needs to be done, tweaked or changed while I’m drinking coffee in the morning.”
Switching off isn’t really part of the equation. “I honestly don’t [switch off.] All of my friends are creative in some capacity and that’s so important because I always need to have conversations about art, music, and creativity. If you don’t surround yourself with those sorts of people, you can lack the motivation or you start doubting yourself. I'm always in communion with my practice and that's how I like it. I don’t want to escape it, I want to live it.”
“If someone tells me no, it'll make me want to do it even more"
© @annemariesterianThere’s not a shred of insincerity here - Charlotte is most certainly an ‘artist’ rather than ‘artiste,’ a snub many online critics reach for because apparently, women can’t be beautiful and talented at the same time. “People often deny my credibility as an artist because I'm a model,” she reflects candidly, referencing British artist Pauline Boty, who faced the same narrow-mindedness during her 1960s heyday. Raised alongside fellow Pop artist Peter Blake, Boty was both an artist and model, appearing in photographs by celebrated photographers including David Bailey. She was known for deliberately positioning herself alongside her artwork in photographs, only to find that her work was sometimes cropped from the resulting images.
Rather than allow her art to be sidelined, she began posing nude behind her paintings, ensuring that both she and her work remained visible in publications. For Charlotte, Boty’s example feels particularly resonant in the age of social media, where artists who model or share images of themselves alongside their work can still face assumptions that they are not taking their practice seriously.
© @annemariesterianMake no mistake, Charlotte takes it seriously. “I think a lot of these comments are rooted in sexism because people see a model doing art and automatically think ‘Daddy's money.’ I get that comment a lot, which really pisses me off, because it's not the case at all.” The talent has acquired the art historical vocabulary to prove it: “I'm a history nerd!” she declares proudly. “A lot of my newer work is inspired by medieval and Renaissance art, like Da Vinci and Botticelli. I’m also really obsessed with Hans Holbein the Younger.”
Subtly and self-indulgently mentioning my art history degree, I question the star about her relationship with Pop art, a genre which has historically been afforded less gravitas than some of its more revered visual counterparts. “I was always drawn to pop art because I love the 60s,” she notes, referencing old Playboy editorials and adverts. “I do understand that Pop art is seen as a more lowbrow form of art, but my newer work is my attempt to prove that I'm not just making Pop art - I'm making stuff that is connected to me and my story.”
"It does feel like I'm ripping out my heart and showing it to everyone publicly"
She plans to do so by juxtaposing figurative styles and self-portraiture, while oscillating between watercolour and oil paint for her upcoming November exhibition hosted in Fitrozia’s Noho Studios. Viewing the opportunity as a chance to “take back independence,” the display tackles themes of isolation, love and loss inspired by the all-too-familiar and universal feeling of heartbreak: “I went through a breakup and it made me want to be seen a bit more through my work. My work previously was quite intentionally guarded - there wasn't much of me as a person involved. This exhibition is like a diary entry. It does feel like I'm ripping out my heart and showing it to everyone publicly.”
I mention that this is pretty much the name of the game when it comes to producing great art, reaching for Fleetwood Mac as an example. “Fleetwood Mac is a great reference for how I feel like this exhibition is,” the painter animatedly replies, noting her eclectic playlist that has soundtracked her recent project planning (Dire Straits, Cosmo Sheldrake and quirky British folk, FYI).
Having already cracked the American art market (“my previous work was very Americana, so I feel like they liked that), Charlotte is keen to root herself in the British artscape once again. “My community is here,” she says. “This exhibition is more introspective. It’s less about consumerism and branding” - (the artist previously sold a Tabasco bottle painting to the heiress of the hot sauce company, which now resides in Avery Island, the Tabasco HQ) - “and I wanted to prove to myself that I’m not a one-trick pony. Okay, I’ve done this thing and quite successfully, but I don’t want to be like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up - and that boulder being Marlboro boxes.”
"Being an artist is always going to invite criticism - it's just part and parcel of the job"
Does she struggle to separate her increasingly intimate work from her own identity? “Being an artist is always going to invite criticism - it's just part and parcel of the job. But I also think I respond quite well to criticism because I'll always take it on board,” she coolly notes, citing past social media comments that tickled her. " ‘Knock-off Warhol garbage, but you look great, don't push it,” she laughs, adding: “I thought that was f*cking beautiful. Put it on a T-shirt." Another resonated more deeply. “One of the comments said, "I can't wait until your art becomes more real and introspective,” she continues. “That one stuck in my head. I thought, ‘I need to do something that feels connected to me.’ Even if this work, which is super vulnerable, is criticised, I'll just take it on board and grow as a person and as an artist. Hopefully, I won't take it too personally. I am very sensitive, I'm a Pisces moon, so I might cry in the bath.” As an astrology-agnostic Cancer, I told her I relate. “But being sensitive is a superpower!” the star concludes.
© @annemariesterianNaturally, with toes dipped in the pools of both the modelling and art worlds, fashion soon came calling. With a look reminiscent of Noughties muses like Alexa Chung, Sam Rollinson and Dakota Johnson (while deep-diving on Charlotte’s Instagram, I clocked that Role Model has liked a few of her pics - clearly, he has a type), coupled with a CV spanning campaigns with Furla, Fiorucci and Coach, Charlotte is flying the flag for models with something to show.
“I'm a self-funded artist, so there has to be some sort of balance between working for money, and also doing the artwork, but I don’t think that working with these big brands butts heads with my art,” she shares. “A lot of these luxury houses I’ve worked with really support artists, especially Fiorucci.” The fringed beauty recounts how back in the 1980s, the cult Italian label owned a large concession store in New York that simultaneously served as a platform for emerging creatives and a hang-out spot for Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Madonna.
“Being an artist is always going to invite criticism - it's just part and parcel of the job"
© @annemariesterianShe offers some insight into the thought process behind luxury brand marketing today: “I'm getting booked because I'm a model that has another string to their bow. Often in these campaigns, I'm alongside other models that are also either artists, DJs, or actors. Brands are looking for models with stories behind them.”
A question I always ask creatives is how they stay mentally stable when their work is so closely intertwined with their identity and constantly subject to social media judgement: “It's just about surrounding yourself with the people that are pursuing a similar thing to you and being supportive of each other. I think that's really important. Also, not dating a loser that tells you that you're rubbish.”
© @annemariesterianOh the audacity of men. ‘Rubbish’ is the last adjective one would use to describe this glorious specimen of a woman perched before me. Freckle-faced with a Daisy Jones-esque hint of undone, messy-girl glamour and a heavily vintage-influenced wardrobe, Charlotte is the walking, modern-day muse Gen Z can’t help but pine after. Think Lady of the Canyon meets Camden rocker, armed with a wealth of cultural knowledge that toggles between Joan Didion’s bibliography and the enduring lore of Ziggy Stardust.
Despite her retro aesthetic, Charlotte continues to look forward - and encourages budding artists to follow suit: “I always tell my friends who have amazing bodies of work to post on social media because it gives you such access. It negates the gallery gatekeepers because you have direct access to collectors." She champions self-promotion as essential, while emphasising the importance of diversifying in a chronically online world where competition is never far behind.
© @annemariesterianThe conversation ends on this empowering note, having covered some serious ground spanning the unmatched magic of Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract blooms to useless (and downright wrong) ex-partners. With her razor sharp perception and unpretentious scholarly knowledge, Charlotte exists as a refreshing reminder that curiosity, creativity and cool-girl charisma needn’t exist in separate worlds.
Charlotte is an artist, yes, but more importantly, there’s an art to being Charlotte. Talented, kind and beautiful in an almost otherworldly sense, her star quality is impossible to miss - and coming to a gallery near you soon.
