Salmagundi Palettes | Artist Member Spotlight | 2024 | December | Charles W Mundy
By Vanessa Françoise Rothe
Charles Warren Mundy is known as one of the most esteemed American Impressionists of our day. From his early years as a collegiate basketball player, to life as a sports illustrator to becoming a professional fine artist, we celebrate his journey and congratulate him on his many honorable achievements. Born in Indianapolis Indiana in 1945 Charles received his undergraduate degree in art from Ball State University, after which he pursued his Masters of Fine Art at Long Beach State in California.
Mundy’s work is displayed in fine museums such as the Indiana State Museum, Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Indianapolis 500 Museum as well as esteemed corporate and private collections. He has won numerous awards from being a five time “Best in Show” at the Hoosier Salon, receiving a “Legacy Award” presented by the American Impressionist Society, Invitations to the American Masters exhibitions at our own Salmagundi Club on 5th Avenue here in New York, awards from the California Art Club, and holds a Master recognition from many of the top oil painting clubs in America.
Q&A with Artist Charles W. Mundy
Please tell us about how you first began painting when you were young. Did you always have a penchant for drawing and painting? Did your family encourage you, or did you have a relative who painted that inspired you?
I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1945 and was singled out as an artist by my grade school art teacher and was greatly influenced by my father’s drawings. I would sit on my father’s lap, and squeeze his left arm by his big army tattoo and watch him doodle stick figures. Like every son who tries to emulate his father, I started doodling. Soon after, I stopped drawing stick figures and started drawing Walt Disney cartoon characters. Later when I was twelve, I tried to do drawings from the Saturday Evening Post covers which featured Norman Rockwell paintings.
I received a full-ride basketball scholarship to college but transferred to Ball State University in Indiana to receive proper art training for an art degree. I received my undergraduate degree in art and art education from Ball State University, and then worked on my Masters of Fine Art at Long Beach State in California (1971-72).
I then studied painting “from life” under Donald “Putt” Putman in California where I learned a great deal about the professional world of fine art and design. He was the 1st living artist who I had ever met who actually had a vibrant art career and was making money in the cowboy western art world. Later in the early 1970’s in Hermosa Beach (Pier Ave.), California, I met fellow local artist Dan McCaw and we both attended Putt’s Wednesday night live portrait and figure sessions.
Did you work at another job before becoming an artist? How did you first start exhibiting your artwork? Was there an important moment when you first decided you were able, and excited, to be a professional fine artist?
Yes, I first had a career in sports illustration, and as the demand for this type of art slowed, I longed to create my own work… to find my own voice as a painter. It was time to consider another road to follow for my creativity. My wife and I discussed the possibility of Impressionism Fine Art. We contacted a local Indianapolis gallery to show my new work. The gallery owner was expecting sports art, but kept the impressionistic paintings to show clients and to our surprise, he soon sold both small landscapes.
I began painting a series of women and children at the beach, using my photos of nieces and nephews on vacation at the beach, and influenced by the paintings of Frank Benson and other artists. I became well known for an impressionist style and this subject matter early on in my fine art career.
As a master artist, you have the ability to paint any subject you like, what is your current favorite subject and why?
Painting the representational subject matter, whether it’s a figure, a still life, and landscape became different revolving subjects for me, and continuously changing subject seems to keep my interest. Still Life painting really caught my attention after studying Emil Carlsen, Henri Fantin-Latour, and the French Impressionists. Currently, I’ve been painting a lot of “imaginary seascapes” and “imaginary snowscapes”!
Inspiration: Do your European travels inspire many of your subjects? Have certain artworks or periods of art history influenced you?
In 1995, my wife and I attended a very large Monet Retrospective Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. We then researched the life of Monet in France, and we soon followed his footsteps on a six-week Plein Air painting trip in France to visit Monet’s painting sites, and the locations of other Impressionists such as Van Gogh and Gauguin. I had my first one-man exhibition, Paysages de France, in 1995. Since then, we traveled for many years to paint overseas. I have painted all over Europe, from the Cote D’Azur to the Thames River and the Netherlands, and all at different times of day. Wherever I would travel in Europe, I would look for paintings in certain times of the day, with the lights and shadows. Then I would return to paint that scene at the time of day best suited for the painting. I also started painting in ‘series’, like Monet’s haystacks, to paint the same subject but in different lights, in different times of the day, and in various seasons and weather.
How would you categorize your own work style or genre?
I love to try many different ways of painting and in various styles, experimenting from impressionism to realism to abstract art.
Please list the Master artists or peers that have influenced you, both living or historical. What have you gleaned from their work that you include in yours?
I have been greatly influenced by the Impressionists. I have studied many of the old Masters through endless books and museums, and I appreciate much of their work. Early in my art career, Donald Putman taught me that “mileage” and “value” were the two most important aspects of art.
Can you please describe your approach to painting? We would like to know your steps. Do you draw first with pencil, do you paint primarily Alla Prima? Do you have specific surface you prefer, specific paint colors you can’t do without? Do you paint on location or in the studio… or both?
I’m approaching 80 years, and so am spending more time in the studio and less plein air. But Plein Air painting built my career and taught me a lot. Recently I haven’t been doing a preliminary drawing, just starting in with painting, and using photos on my phone or iPad. In the studio, I like to paint as much as possible on a painting in a day, but may fine-tune the painting for days or weeks or longer. I’ve been doing a lot in the last few years with a triad of colors…. red, yellow and blue varieties with an addition of black.
What is one of your favorite works, or series of works, that you have created … and why? What did you accomplish with that particular work or series that makes you proud of it?
I have always enjoyed painting “in series”, such as all my European series of paintings in different countries. Also, I love to paint the children at the beach. I did a series of ballerinas, because one niece was a professional ballerina, and the ballet was readily available to me. I have a large collection of Still Life props, and I often paint Still Life paintings in series “from life”.
Can you share some of your favorite wisdom gained after many years as a professional artists? Tips and tricks, or 5-6 fundamental concepts one should always use or be aware of?
In the beginning, it was all about doing the best job of copying. You have to learn to draw, and then learn how to push paint, and how to mix the colors and values you are seeing. An artist always needs to understand the rules of the science, before he starts breaking the rules. The key to maturity as an artist should always be about the “journey” (the expectation of the painting) much more than the conclusion.
As much as desiring success, you need to experience failures and then grow from them. After studying the works of the Impressionists and other Masters, I coined this phrase… “The power of the suggestive is much greater than the statement of reality.”
Please let us how you came to be a SCNY Artist Member and when. Did someone introduce you to the club? What do you love most about being a Salmagundi Club member? What does it mean to you, as a professional artist in America to be a part of our historical art club?
When Tim Newton was Chairman of the Board at the Salmagundi, he introduced me to the club, I became a member, and then it was an honor to participate in The American Masters Invitational Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NYC, 2015 – 2018. It is an honor to be a part of one of the oldest art clubs in America, a club with a rich history of artists such as William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, NC Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, and many others. The club was founded in 1871 in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, NYC. Since 1917, it has been located in a beautiful old historic brownstone at 47 Fifth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan.
What would you say to an artist thinking of joining the Salmagundi Club?
“By joining the Salmagundi Art Club, you are uniting yourself with history!” The Club offers many opportunities for exhibitions and workshops. Especially if you live nearby or even when traveling to NYC from a distance, it’s a great club for art camaraderie or an event or exhibit or even a meal in their historic dining room.