Charlie Hunter won the first place award in the Plein Air Easton Quick Draw competition with this painting “Seven Nineteen Fourteen“! Do you know what that means? It means it was completed in less than two hours… WHAAAAT?! I know! Jaw dropping… Just look at the level of detail that was accomplished in that short time… using basically these colors:  Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Green Deep (Cobra water-mixable oils).

I have to include a photo where you can see this painting in full context…

Charlie’s one of those cool artists with a sense of humor. You just have to love that! If you would like to keep in touch with what’s happening in Charlie’s art world, with a little dose of humor added… Subscribe to his mailing list! While you’re there check out his paintings… quite amazing, aren’t they? I see Charlie has a few workshops coming up, in case anyone is interested!

Read a blip about Charlie from his website:

“I do not know if I have ever said no one is born with a natural sense of design, but if it is within the realm of human evolution, or the whim of the Divine, to allow one individual to possess such a gift, then Charlie Hunter is certainly the lucky winner… No Oriental or Occidental master of the pure line can surpass what Charlie, almost matter-of-factly, does when he takes pencil in hand.” – Richard Schmid, ALLA PRIMA II, 2013

I was born in a small town in New Hampshire where we used to swim in the abandoned granite quarries. We had pigs and chickens and rambling barns. I’d walk home from school along the branch line rails of the Boston & Maine, and read the names and slogans on the box cars that’d roll by, things like “The Nickel Plate Road” and “Santa Fe All The Way”…..

When they put a highway bypass through our barns, my family returned to the house built by my great, great, great grandfather in Vermont, where my Great Aunts lived. We made (and still make) maple syrup there and had (and still have) a hand-cranked cider press which makes amazing cider but can remove a finger if you’re not careful (just ask Uncle Andrew).

My Dad was an occasional minister who ran a small print shop. There was always a lot of paper and drawing stuff around. I drew a lot. Though I did not appreciate it at the time, in college I was lucky enough to be forced to draw the figure every morning from 8:00 am till noon. Afterwards, I got a job designing tour posters for acts like The Clash and REM and The Jerry Garcia Band. I got to design a lot of album covers.

Now I live back in Vermont on the banks of the Connecticut River in an old mill town. There, I like to paint what nature does to what man creates. I tend to use a monochromatic blend of ultramarine blue, viridian, yellow ochre (sometimes) and burnt sienna. Sometimes I do an underpainting from life, then, in the studio, apply transparent glazes (of pretty much the same colors) on top. Sometimes this works and sometimes it makes a big mess. But I always learn something.

A few years ago I was invited to join the Putney Painters, run by Richard Schmid and his wife Nancy Guzik. A bunch of us get together just down the road on most Saturdays and we paint up a storm. It’s amazing fun.

My goal is to paint beautifully that which is not traditionally considered beautiful. Sorta like a less-grotesque Anselm Keifer in a considerably better mood. It’s my hope that these paintings maybe move you even a little bit as much as the way the real thing moves me. Thanks for looking.

All images via hunter-studio.com – used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!