Short Bio:
As a teen, I toyed with sculpting, but painting took over. I worked with, and learned from some very good artists. Wrote a couple of books: Paradise Now and Becoming The Thinker: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738803952/qid=973109424/sr=1-3/103-1156231-7357428 Showed and sold in the USA, England, Europe and parts of Asia. Became a full time painter in 1977. Still at it and will probably continue until I die. Each of my prints (Giclees) are limited to 10 editions.
Long Bio:
Sketching people and places is a natural, childlike thing. Yet, unlike most children, I couldn't give it up. I was captured by the form of a thing, which may explain an early interest in sculpting. A high school art teacher entered one of my pieces in a state art contest. To my great surprise, that poor little alabaster sculpt won a blue ribbon as well as a ticket to a traveling Van Gogh exhibit. I was overwhelmed by Vincent's intense color and became driven to learn to paint. Although I didn't try to sell anything until my late twenties, the struggle is a wonderful, consuming obsession. The first painting I sold probably covered 5 or 6 less successful pieces. Even today if you buy one of my paintings, you may be getting layers of multiple abstracts, which, until recently, I didn't have the courage to display..
Early on I made a living doing other things, but the need to paint was always there. I even sold a few pieces while reluctantly flying with the 19th Air Commando's in Vietnam. Later in London I showed a few pieces in Wynn-Morgan's Master/Student exhibit in Earl's Court, London. Wynn-Morgan's patron, the Duchess of Bedford, opened the show, insuring good exposure. But most importantly, Wynn-Morgan, R.A. taught me how to avoid making mud. My color became purer and I moved on. At that time form still trumped color in my work. After years of struggle I finally see that color is more important than form.
Yet faces were still fascinating and I sketched likenesses of anyone willing to sit. I finally became a full time painter in 1977. Portraits became my bread and butter, especially quick 18 x 24 pastels or charcoals on Canson paper. I also painted more formal portraits on canvas, in oil and/or acrylic.
In 1982 Wife and I launched a homemade 36' sailboat from Corpus Christi Texas. We even made the masts and the sails, then moved aboard and sailed around the Gulf of Mexico. We came ashore in various coastal towns along the way. I'd often hook up with a gallery and do portraits on-the-spot, occasionally selling one or more of my more colorful paintings, or sometimes a formal portrait. Five years later we came ashore in St. Petersburg Fla. I opened a gallery. The years flew by. In 1992 we got antsy, packed it in and moved to the Pacific North West, living on Fox Island. Since 2021 we have lived in Knightdale North Carolina.
Charles Munn joined Pixels.com Licensing on September 1st, 2011.
