Charles Meanwell
Charles Meanwell (1946– ) is a self-taught landscape artist who currently lives and works in Hamilton, Ontario. He has been painting his surroundings for the past 40 years using a unique gestural style. He frequently paints scenes around Hamilton, Toronto, and Windsor and has other site-specific painting projects in Newfoundland, Georgian Bay, and on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Born in Windsor, Ontario, Meanwell attended both the University of Toronto and Trent University in English programs. He did take some classes from the Toronto School Of Art, but he is considered a self-taught painter. Painting the landscapes in which he finds himself, he is attracted to interesting forms and accidental encounters on the land. He typically works en plein air to create renderings that are highly specific to and representative of particular places. Interested in capturing the minute details of the landscape as well as its grandeur, he paints small-scale images on oil boards and large-scale paintings on various construction materials. The durability of these materials gives Meanwell the versatility of painting on any terrain.
His work is recognizable due to its simplified compositions and muted colour palette, a style that is reminiscent of David Milne, Milton Avery, and Meanwell’s mentor Barker Fairly. He often begins his paintings with a dark underpainting, leaving the dark background visible as he paints the contrast and structure that will define the rest of the image. This approach results in a muted colour palette that accurately captures Ontario’s winter landscapes.
Meanwell’s paintings have been exhibited across Ontario, including in solo exhibitions at the Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, in 2010 and the Windsor Art Gallery in 2008. His work is also held in private and public collections at the Tom Thompson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, the MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, and the Scotiabank Art Collection, Toronto, among others. Meanwell is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto and Christina Parker Gallery in St. John’s.