By Bonnie Gangelhoff
For Charles Young Walls, one of the joys of art is to find intriguing objects to paint and then push his abilities and aesthetic sense to the highest level. “I don’t allow myself to stay safe artistically,” the Georgia-based artist says. In PERSIMMON AND BRONZE, he painted directly from life without photography—his usual way of working. He enjoys painting in all genres, including still life, figurative, and landscape, and says that when it comes to style, he is “more of a romantic because I’m always trying to paint light and feeling.”
Walls was interested in art from an early age. “I drew before I could walk,” he says. “My earliest memory was making marks on a wall and getting a spanking for it. Finally, my mom gave me paper,” he recalls. Walls earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Arizona State University in Tempe and also studied at the Art Students of New York with David Leffel and Peter Cox. See more of Walls’ work at www.charlesyoungwalls.com.
Featured in our annual “21 Over 31” issue in November 2009