Charles Burns
Copyright © 2025 Charles Burns
For many years I have earned my living as a silhouettist. I began cutting silhouettes while working as a street portrait artist in London’s Covent Garden, where I worked for about twelve years after graduating from art college. I then embarking on a career as an artist/entertainer, working in corporate events.
Silhouettes have led me on a strange journey. Although my first interest was in painting and my degree in Fine Art, I have found myself variously described as an entertainer, author, art historian, collector, film presenter, lecturer and speaker. All these are entirely due to my skill with a pair of scissors, and my growing obsession with the silhouette. Lately. I feel that this journey is taking me full circle, back into the world of painting and graphic arts. These latest works are a combination of landscape and portrait, with the silhouette acting as a frame for the image. Some have described them as like looking through a keyhole. I feel these represent the start of a new body of work for me and am excited to see where they lead.