Charles grew up in Southern Saskatchewan, near the Canadian border. His summers were spent wandering the hills around the extinct river bed where he lived.
He obtained a Diploma in Applied Arts in 1978; majoring in sculpture, with an elective in photography. Between then and 2000, he obtained several grants from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Canada Counsel to pursue his explorations in environmental sculpture. He received an Alberta Culture Travel Grant in 1988 to study stone carving in Carrara, Italy.
Charles had several group and solo exhibitions of his work during this period and won several commissions. He completed ‘Spire’ at the University of Calgary in 1988; the result of a national competition for an exterior sculpture at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval.
‘Searching for Tranquility’, his exhibit of photographs in 2009, explored the balance between (sun)light and shade in landscape; often represented in the fractal imagery of trees. These landscapes explored the park lands and the Bow River around Calgary.
Lately, he has returned to the beaches of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, near Ucluelet; to capture still-life. Each low tide ebb current reveals a new canvas of objects left on the beach sand; the different grains of sand organize into subtle lines of colour; photographing these graphic elements reminds him of the childhood game of imagining different shapes in clouds.
This portfolio contains digital images captured between 2004 and 2023 in Western Canada. Film images, photographed prior to 2004 are not included. Cityscapes photographed in London, Paris, Venice and Rome during this period; and landscape panoramas from Sweden, Italy or Greece are also not part of this collection at this time.