At about age four, Charlie would spread scrap paper on the floor in order to make drawings. His mother would sharpen a pencil for him with a kitchen knife and he would draw planes, guns and tanks – the theme of the day. He painted all through childhood and later attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to study commercial art. Here he became aware of the innate urges of working abstractly with paint and began such works.
Charlie attended graduate school at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. In Santa Barbara Charlie spent seven years designing graphics which included brochures, logo design, technical drawings and prize winning slide presentations—some of which were shown at the Pentagon.
While in California, Charlie met his wife Linda. Wanting some land of their own, they moved to West Virginia and purchased 25 acres of meadow and woods where they built a shop and cabin. Charlie’s commercial art career converted to sign painting. This simple lifestyle provided a 10 year retreat—an opportunity to mature and experiment with various artistic directions.
After relocating to Myrtle Beach, Charlie spent over thirty years creating murals and painting portraits. This experience rounded his five decades of artistic expression and out of that emerged his abstract painting in full maturity.