AWARD WINNING ARTIST – CHARLES CASHWELL

“All I’ve ever wanted to be is an artist,” confides nationally acclaimed artist Charles Cashwell, who splits residency between Bluffton and Sautee Nacoochee Valley in north Georgia.

The spark that ignited Cashwell’s passion occurred at age 9, when he lived in Aiken. Rather shy at the time, Cashwell was so intrigued by a neighbor’s art studio that he boldly knocked on her door and asked if she could teach him to paint.

Those classes proved to be the foundation for an ever evolving career in art.

“She would set up a still-life, and we would paint it, learning about composition, values, color theory, and drawing,” he said. “That’s how I paint today, except as you get older, you copy less and paint feelings more.”

Because Cashwell’s father was a pastor, the family moved frequently, but Cashwell’s art enthusiasm never wavered. During a short stint in Charleston he fell in love with the beauty of the Lowcountry, hoping someday he’d return.

After attending high school in Charleston, S.C., Cashwell attended the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Fla., where he met his future wife, Rebecca. Eventually, they married, moved to Atlanta and started a family. While Rebecca pursued a career in graphic design, Charles became an illustrator.

But Cashwell had bigger ambitions.

He was adept at drawing the figure, so he decided to teach himself how to paint portraits. Part of his tutelage included trips to Hilton Head to visit with Joe Bowler, famous for his magazine illustrations and portraits of notable figures like Rose Kennedy and Julie and David Eisenhower. Bowler had a studio in Sea Pines until his death in 2016.

“I was doing things for free, just to get the experience,” Cashwell said. “Then I did a small painting, and Rebecca took it to her office at the agency she was working at.”

A client of my Rebecca’s saw it and hired Cashwell to paint a portrait of her daughter. Word spread among that client’s friends, leading to more portrait requests.

So thrilled with Cashwell’s talent, one woman not only told all her friends in New York about him, she also arranged for him to fly there for a week to do photograph sittings for half a dozen interested families.

Most of those clients were connected to Wall Street. Without ever advertising, Cashwell’s portraiture work remained steady throughout the South and Northeast for the next 16 years – until the financial collapse in 2008.

Thus began his foray into Fine Art and Plein Air – a “hoitytoity word,” he laughs, “that means painting outside.”

Once again, he taught himself, mastering the quickness needed to capture a moment in time before the mood and lighting change.

Carting his French easel, oil paints, a palette, brushes, and turpentine, Cashwell sets up shop, hoping to depict the “spontaneity” of whatever is in view.

“I try to capture that feeling when you glance at something and it catches the corner of your eye,” he says. His impressionistic images have garnered quite a following, earning him invitations and awards from various art communities.

But his newest endeavors are with Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon and Great Brook Gallery in New Vernon, New Jersey. The elite gallery Mockingbird now houses Cashwell’s western-themed paintings, inspired by a three-year stay in Taos, New Mexico where he fell in love with the Pueblo people and their land.
Great Brook Gallery is doing a one man show with Charles in April 2023 showing Plein Air and Large Studio Pieces.

“It has taken my entire career to get to this place, and it is a dream come true,” he says. “The check is nice but knowing someone is moved by what you did – that’s pretty special.”

When asked about the future, he declares, “More of the same — painting, painting, painting.”

See more of his work at cashwellfineart.com

PLEIN AIR AWARDS:
DULUTH PAINT OUT 2017 – First Place
BLUE RIDGE PAINT OUT 2017- Second Place
DULUTH PAINT OUT-2018 – Third Place
OPEN AIR MERIWETHER 2019 – Purchase Award
OLMSTED QUICK DRAW PAINT OUT 2019 – First Place
GEORGIA COLORS 2018 – Second place, People’s Choice
DULUTH PAINT OUT 2020 – First place, Quick Draw
SAUTEE PLEIN AIR 202O – Second Place
Art League of Hilton Head BIENNALE 2021 – First Place (750 entries across the US)
SAUTEE PLEIN AIR 2021 – Second Place
NEW BERN PAINT OUT 2022 – Best of Oriental

EXHIBITIONS:
ERNEST GASPARD ADAC 2017
MACON ART ALLIANCE 2017
GILMER ARTS 2018-2019
OPEN AIR MERIWETHER 2018-2022
SOCIETY OF SEVEN 2020-2023
HILTON HEAD/BLUFFTON MONTHLY Featured Artist and Article
PAPSE – VENICE FL 2023
GREAT BROOK GALLERY 2023-ONE MAN SHOW

PLEIN AIR INSTRUCTOR/CLASSES:
DULUTH, GA – 2017-2019
HILTON HEAD/BLUFFTON, SC – 2018
BLUE RIDGE, GEORGIA – 2020
SAUTEE, GA – 2020

MEMBER OF PLEIN AIR SOCIETIES
SOCIETY OF SEVEN – GEORGIA
PAPSE – PLEIN AIR PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHEAST