The rest is history: Charles was the first and founding artist of this rapidly growing colony of very talented, professional artists. He was the only working artist who had a gallery in Todos Santos up until 1995.

Charles is a world renowned artist who has been cataloged by The Smithsonian in Houston, Texas at the Fine Arts Museum. His works are available to faculty and students. He also does remarkable carvings that are sought after by collectors.

Two books have included Charles in them: Modernists in Taos written by David L. Witt and Roberta Myers has one coming out this year which tells about his life.

He was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1922. He studied at the Toledo Art Museum. During World War II he served in the US Army in five campaigns with Tank Destroyers. After leaving the Army in 1945, he went to New York to study painting and sculpture at the Art Students League. He studied Painting with Cameron Booth, Jan Liberti, Nahum Tschacbasov, Vaclav Vytlacil, Byron Browne and Nathaniel Dirk and graphic arts with Will Bernet and sculpture with John Havannes.

In 1950 he left New York to visit Mexico City. From there he moved to Taos, New Mexico, where he studied at the Valley Art School under the tueelage of Louis Ribak.

In group exhibits, he has shown in numerous exhibitions outside of New Mexico: Bresler Gallery, Milwaukee; Toledo Art Museum and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In New Mexico he has exhibited in the Roswell Museum, the State Fair in Albuquerque, the New Mexico Museum in Santa Fe and in Taos. His work has been in traveling exhibits from the Stables Gallery in Taos to Minnesota, Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, California, Arizona, Wyoming and Georgia.He is associated with gallery groups in the Rosequist Gallery; Tucson, Arizona, Gallery A and Stables Gallery in Taos.

Charles Stewart is a sculptor and painter and much of his painting gives the sculptor feeling...especially his interpretations of Indian Kachinas and symbols such as his green corn series. On burlap with economy of pigment, he achieves a most primitive technique which resembles wood-collage rather than paint. He is an imaginative artist, very inventive and has the ability to execute a sometimes intense mystical quality.

In 1958-59-60, he won awards at the New Mexico state fair, all of regional subject matter. In 1960, the National Council of Churches selected his carving "And the Rain Came", for the national exhibition in San Francisco. In 1961, he was selected for the 11th Mid-America Exhibit at Nelson Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri. He has taught at Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, OK and Taos Art Association. In 2007 he was awarded the "Best Artist of Baja  2006" peoples choice award from Baja Travelers Magazine.

Maurice de Vinna of the Tulsa World says: "Stewart has a gaiety of color and an imagination which is delightful. The degree of style the artist is able to put into direct rendering of rather stark subject matter is most impressive." Martin Elkhort in Santa Fe New Mexico remarks: "Interesting and highly imaginative, he combines both form and color to achieve an effect." Ronald Latimer in the New Mexican at a later date adds: "A luminous fog enclose everything. Perhaps an Oriental would understand it better than an American would. Stewart has a tour de force in the department of understatement".

In 1986, Charles was contacted by the Smithsonian Institute of Southwest Art to submit all photos of his work and everything relating to his career in Taos. It has been recorded on microfilm and can be viewed at the Houston Museum of Fine Art in Houston, Texas or borrowed on interlibrary loan.

Charles is still producing an enormous amount of paintings each year. You can visit his gallery Monday through Saturday 10:00am until 5:00pm and find him at work (or play). He has a one man show each year in May on the closest Sunday to his birthday which is the 23rd. All are invited!!

"Painting is life: it is for the artist to make paint and canvas live. It does not matter whether it be recognizable in concept but in execution, the work must come alive. On this plane everyone can understand; can feel. To me, theories, paint, brushes, canvas textures are merely a mean, not the end."