Rod Charlesworth

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Artist Rod Charlesworth was born in northern British Columbia and moved south to the province’s Okanagan Valley at a young age. The surrealists influenced his earliest paintings. He then discovered the works of the impressionist school which has taken him to his current artistic interests. Those include a keen interest in experimenting with colour and the physical qualities of paint. Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven have also had a profound influence on his work. He is committed to painting images that have a strong Canadian cultural influence, whether this is expressed through his bold landscapes or his more recent whimsical images of children at play.

Inspiration:

“If I waited for a bright shaft of light to awaken my artistic senses and stir me to create, I would probably have created all of nothing. What initially inspired me to paint was how we all see the world differently. I wanted to strike my own visual language that could be used to portray the Canadian landscape in all of its rugged subtleties. The mountains at dusk, a lake with the sunlight gleaming on it, a fishing village with all of its quaint colours, all of these scenes afford ample inspiration. It is these scenes coupled with the creative process and the physical qualities of paint on canvas that bring all of this to a fulfilling aesthetic resolve.

“I think if you were to ask most painters, they would say that at times the process of painting is really all the inspiration required. For myself, many a painting has taken me on a wild goose chase far from where I thought the destination would be. Sometimes these pieces turn out to be the best expressions of all.”

Painter’s Philosophy:

“It’s just paint … have fun with it!”