Caption
Charles Bartlett was born in Grimsby and spent his childhood in Eastbourne, studying at Eastbourne School of Art 1937-40. Following service with The Guards Armoured Division during WWII he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art to study painting and etching under Robert Austin (1875-1973).
On Austin's suggestion that he should visit East Anglia, Bartlett bought a wooden boat to explore the coast with its estuaries and marshes. He developed his technique of colour etching in the 1960s inspired by Stanley William Hayter's use of block colours, multiple printing plates and differing ink viscosities.