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After graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1965, Charles embarked on a
highly successful career in art education. While he had painted and
exhibited continually throughout these years it wasn't until the 1990s that
he retired to devote all his time to painting. He was elected a member of
the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1983 and the Royal Scottish Society of
Painters in Watercolour in 1984, serving the latter as Vice President for
the East of Scotland. Charles has won many awards over a long and
distinguished career including the Torrance Award and the Teacher's Whiskey
Travel Award, both at the Royal Glasgow Institute. He was recently
commissioned by P & O to produce two large murals for their new flagship,
the Arcadia. In these recent paintings his style continues to develop in a
representational direction; the views of East Coast Scottish harbours and
North African games tables are instantly recognisable as such while still
infused with Charles' evident fascination with abstracted pattern and
design. By using textured levels of paint and gesso Charles depicts the sensation
or experience of a place.Charles wrote recently...."The forms I use are forms
remembered or dreamt about. The stark visual contrasts of moving between strong blinding
sunlight and dark bazaars full of rich reds, golds and turquoise inhabit my paintings.
This is like being put down to sleep in a darkened room with strong sumlight streaming
through the shutters. This is not representation but an evocation" |
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enlargement.
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