Charles is a great ambassador for the Cape Ann School.   Cape Ann is the longest active artist colony in the United States.  No surprise. The place is one painting after another, just waiting to be painted. After all this time, you’d think the nay-sayers of art, the It’s-all-been-done crowd, might have a point, but Motif #1 still draws painters, who are still doing something that’s never been done before. Charles’ lecture on the Cape Ann School is not to be missed. Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, John Sloan,Emile Gruppe are a few of the regulars going back nearly 200 years. Gloucester and Rockport are plagued by picturesqueness.  It’s catching.  Trash bins may even be lovely.

The focus of the artists Charles admired and learned from as a young painter (Emile Gruppe, Carl Peters, Aldro Hibbard) was composition, and his paintings have a solid structure even amid dinghies bobbing at the dock and buildings listing under their years.

Charles has a PhD in English and has written books and articles galore.  The books, though pricey if you can find one, are fantastic reads for any student of painting covering not only many laudable artists, but also composition, color, and the wielding of the brush.  We are still waiting for the book on Charles himself, but he has let us know that some things will melt and others freeze over before we’ll see that book.  We’ll enjoy his paintings while we wait.

I told you… he’s got a sense of humor… love that! Catch you back here tomorrow!