Artist Statement / Bio/CV
Artist Statement:
I strive for my paintings to reside in an uneasy calm, halfway between a photograph and a memory.
Nominally, my work depicts what nature does to what man creates. By implication, as much as anything, my work bears witness to the cynical hollowing out of rural and small-town America by interests concerned solely with material wealth.
The imagery of iconic photographers such as Lange or Evans resonate with us in manner similar to the paintings of Edward Hopper, Joseph Stella or Franz Kline. All, however, reside in our collective aesthetic, what we think of when we think about visual language.
Manipulating paint with a window washer’s squeegee or impressing the pattern of paper towels into a painted surface to evoke the halftone screens and ben-day dots of classic photographic reproduction, my work plays upon familiar visual tropes that (one hopes) the viewer notes almost subconsciously. Concurrently, the thin, semi-transparent paint film allows quasi-random mark-making to appear almost photographic in detail.
My aspiration is that the limited palette, near monochromatic nature of much of my work is analagous to the stripped-down writing of Carver or Hemingway, attempting to create imagery that is pared to sinew and bone.
Biography:
Charlie Hunter was raised in rural New Hampshire and Vermont, the son of a small-town printer, and graduated cum laude with a BA in Art from Yale University. He worked as a graphic designer and artist manager in the music industry, creating scores of tour posters for acts such as The Clash, REM, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan and the Jerry Garcia Band and managing acoustic artists such as Chris Smither and Dar Williams. Since 2003, his company, Roots on the Rails, has organized music trains across the US, Mexico and Canada. Hunter now works full-time as a painter, and exhibits at galleries and museums across America.
Curriculum Vitae:
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 (September) William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA
(June) McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2024 Montana Songs, Old Main Gallery, Bozeman, MT
2023 Charlie Hunter, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA
2022 Your Labor and Your Dream, McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2021 Semaphore, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 (September) Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, Center for the West, Cody WY
(August) Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY
2024 Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, Center for the West, Cody WY
2023 77th Regional Exhibition, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2023 Legacy 2023, Bryan Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, VT
2023 Shades of Grey II, American Tonalist Society Biennial, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
SELECTED TEACHING AND TALKS
2025 (July) Art in the Open, Wexford, Ireland
(May) Workshop w/Larry Moore, Doug Fryer, Charleston, SC
(January) Artist/Curator Talk with Susan Mikula, BMAC “Island” show
2024 Interview with Director Michael Kline, New Salem Museum of Art, New Salem, MA
2024 Judge’s Talk, Door County Plein Air, Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI
2023 Fryer-Hunter Gathering, juried workshop, Bellows Falls, VT
2023 The Whys and Wherefores of Monochromatic Plein Air, Oil Painters of America, online
2023 From Photograph to Painting, Scottsdale Artists School, Scottsdale, AZ
2022 OPA National, Oil Painters of America, Steamboat Springs, CO
2022 The Hand of Man: Using a Squeegee in Realist Art, Penn Studio School of Art, online
2021 Composition and Values in Plein Air Painting, Main Street Arts Center, Lake Zurich, IL
2021 Plein Air Intensive with Charlie Hunter, Franciscan Life Process Center, Lowell, MI
2019 Lead artist and organizer, Painters’ Workshop and Trip to Havana, Cuba
2019 Organizer, En Train Air, painters’ retreat aboard long-distance trains, Chicago/Santa Fe/Los Angeles/San Francisco
SELECTED AWARDS
2025 Tides Institute, Eastport, Maine Residency
2023 George L. Howell Prize, Best in Show, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2023 Artist’s Choice Ranch Award. Plein Air Texas, San Angelo, TX
2022 Artists’ Choice Award (Body of Work), Smoky Mountains Plein Air, Marysville, TN
2022 First Place Winner, Door County Plein Air, Fish Creek, WI
2022 Timothy Dills Grand Prize, Plein Air Easton, Easton, MD
CURATORIAL
2024 Susan Mikula: ISLAND, Brattleboro Art Museum, Brattleboro, VT
2015 Boxcars: Railroad Imagery in Contemporary Realism, Brattleboro Art Museum,
Brattleboro, VT
SELECTED FILM, VIDEO, PODCASTS
2020-present “REASONABLY FINE ART TALKS” weekly live stream on YouTube
2022 VT Public Television, short-form documentary by Whit Wales, “I Know It When I See It”
2021 Brattleboro Museum, Artist and Curator Conversation: Charlie Hunter & Eric Aho
2019 EnTrainAir.org, “En Train Air on the Southwest Chief”
2019 Plein Air Convention Panel, “En Train Air: When Painters Ride the Rails,” Eric Rhoads
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS
2023 EDGES: Breakthrough Painting Techniques, Modern Masters, PaintTube.tv
2020 BREAKTHROUGH DESIGNS FOR LANDSCAPES, Modern Masters, PaintTube.tv
2019 RULE-BREAKING LANDSCAPES, Streamline Art Videos
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, “Charlie Hunter: Montana Songs”
2022 New England Home Magazine, "The Storyteller," Robert Keiner
2022 Hachette Press, “The Landscape Painter’s Workbook,” Mitch Albala
2021 Outdoor Painter, “Losing Edges with Charlie Hunter”
2020 Tonalism.com, “Charlie Hunter: Contemporary Tonalism”
2020 Plein Air Magazine, “Pushing Boundaries: Maintaining Authenticity”
2019 Landscapes in Oil by Ken Salaz, Monacelli Press
2019 Southwest Art, "10 New Painters”
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Noble & Greenough School, Dedham, MA
Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Northampton, MA
Preservation Trust of Vermont, Montpelier, VT
Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, Clifton Forge, VA
San Angelo Museum of Art, San Angelo, TX
Collection of Rachel Maddow and Susan Mikula
Collection of Logan Mankins
PUBLIC SERVICE
2024-present Justice of the Peace/Board of Civil Authority, Rockingham, VT
2023-present Miss Bellows Falls Diner project (Rockingham for Progress board since 2016)
2021-present Bellows Falls Opera House (Rockingham Entertainment Development)
2014-2021 Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce, Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance, various boards
2012-2014 Trustee, Village of Bellows Falls, VT
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Milford, NH. Raised in Weathersfield Center, VT. Resides in Bellows Falls, VT.
B.A. Art, cum laude. Yale University, New Haven, CT
I strive for my paintings to reside in an uneasy calm, halfway between a photograph and a memory.
Nominally, my work depicts what nature does to what man creates. By implication, as much as anything, my work bears witness to the cynical hollowing out of rural and small-town America by interests concerned solely with material wealth.
The imagery of iconic photographers such as Lange or Evans resonate with us in manner similar to the paintings of Edward Hopper, Joseph Stella or Franz Kline. All, however, reside in our collective aesthetic, what we think of when we think about visual language.
Manipulating paint with a window washer’s squeegee or impressing the pattern of paper towels into a painted surface to evoke the halftone screens and ben-day dots of classic photographic reproduction, my work plays upon familiar visual tropes that (one hopes) the viewer notes almost subconsciously. Concurrently, the thin, semi-transparent paint film allows quasi-random mark-making to appear almost photographic in detail.
My aspiration is that the limited palette, near monochromatic nature of much of my work is analagous to the stripped-down writing of Carver or Hemingway, attempting to create imagery that is pared to sinew and bone.
- Charlie Hunter
Biography:
Charlie Hunter was raised in rural New Hampshire and Vermont, the son of a small-town printer, and graduated cum laude with a BA in Art from Yale University. He worked as a graphic designer and artist manager in the music industry, creating scores of tour posters for acts such as The Clash, REM, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan and the Jerry Garcia Band and managing acoustic artists such as Chris Smither and Dar Williams. Since 2003, his company, Roots on the Rails, has organized music trains across the US, Mexico and Canada. Hunter now works full-time as a painter, and exhibits at galleries and museums across America.
Curriculum Vitae:
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 (September) William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA
(June) McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2024 Montana Songs, Old Main Gallery, Bozeman, MT
2023 Charlie Hunter, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA
2022 Your Labor and Your Dream, McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2021 Semaphore, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 (September) Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, Center for the West, Cody WY
(August) Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY
2024 Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, Center for the West, Cody WY
2023 77th Regional Exhibition, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2023 Legacy 2023, Bryan Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, VT
2023 Shades of Grey II, American Tonalist Society Biennial, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
SELECTED TEACHING AND TALKS
2025 (July) Art in the Open, Wexford, Ireland
(May) Workshop w/Larry Moore, Doug Fryer, Charleston, SC
(January) Artist/Curator Talk with Susan Mikula, BMAC “Island” show
2024 Interview with Director Michael Kline, New Salem Museum of Art, New Salem, MA
2024 Judge’s Talk, Door County Plein Air, Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI
2023 Fryer-Hunter Gathering, juried workshop, Bellows Falls, VT
2023 The Whys and Wherefores of Monochromatic Plein Air, Oil Painters of America, online
2023 From Photograph to Painting, Scottsdale Artists School, Scottsdale, AZ
2022 OPA National, Oil Painters of America, Steamboat Springs, CO
2022 The Hand of Man: Using a Squeegee in Realist Art, Penn Studio School of Art, online
2021 Composition and Values in Plein Air Painting, Main Street Arts Center, Lake Zurich, IL
2021 Plein Air Intensive with Charlie Hunter, Franciscan Life Process Center, Lowell, MI
2019 Lead artist and organizer, Painters’ Workshop and Trip to Havana, Cuba
2019 Organizer, En Train Air, painters’ retreat aboard long-distance trains, Chicago/Santa Fe/Los Angeles/San Francisco
SELECTED AWARDS
2025 Tides Institute, Eastport, Maine Residency
2023 George L. Howell Prize, Best in Show, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
2023 Artist’s Choice Ranch Award. Plein Air Texas, San Angelo, TX
2022 Artists’ Choice Award (Body of Work), Smoky Mountains Plein Air, Marysville, TN
2022 First Place Winner, Door County Plein Air, Fish Creek, WI
2022 Timothy Dills Grand Prize, Plein Air Easton, Easton, MD
CURATORIAL
2024 Susan Mikula: ISLAND, Brattleboro Art Museum, Brattleboro, VT
2015 Boxcars: Railroad Imagery in Contemporary Realism, Brattleboro Art Museum,
Brattleboro, VT
SELECTED FILM, VIDEO, PODCASTS
2020-present “REASONABLY FINE ART TALKS” weekly live stream on YouTube
2022 VT Public Television, short-form documentary by Whit Wales, “I Know It When I See It”
2021 Brattleboro Museum, Artist and Curator Conversation: Charlie Hunter & Eric Aho
2019 EnTrainAir.org, “En Train Air on the Southwest Chief”
2019 Plein Air Convention Panel, “En Train Air: When Painters Ride the Rails,” Eric Rhoads
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS
2023 EDGES: Breakthrough Painting Techniques, Modern Masters, PaintTube.tv
2020 BREAKTHROUGH DESIGNS FOR LANDSCAPES, Modern Masters, PaintTube.tv
2019 RULE-BREAKING LANDSCAPES, Streamline Art Videos
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, “Charlie Hunter: Montana Songs”
2022 New England Home Magazine, "The Storyteller," Robert Keiner
2022 Hachette Press, “The Landscape Painter’s Workbook,” Mitch Albala
2021 Outdoor Painter, “Losing Edges with Charlie Hunter”
2020 Tonalism.com, “Charlie Hunter: Contemporary Tonalism”
2020 Plein Air Magazine, “Pushing Boundaries: Maintaining Authenticity”
2019 Landscapes in Oil by Ken Salaz, Monacelli Press
2019 Southwest Art, "10 New Painters”
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Noble & Greenough School, Dedham, MA
Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Northampton, MA
Preservation Trust of Vermont, Montpelier, VT
Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, Clifton Forge, VA
San Angelo Museum of Art, San Angelo, TX
Collection of Rachel Maddow and Susan Mikula
Collection of Logan Mankins
PUBLIC SERVICE
2024-present Justice of the Peace/Board of Civil Authority, Rockingham, VT
2023-present Miss Bellows Falls Diner project (Rockingham for Progress board since 2016)
2021-present Bellows Falls Opera House (Rockingham Entertainment Development)
2014-2021 Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce, Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance, various boards
2012-2014 Trustee, Village of Bellows Falls, VT
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Milford, NH. Raised in Weathersfield Center, VT. Resides in Bellows Falls, VT.
B.A. Art, cum laude. Yale University, New Haven, CT