The Exeter Courthouse Gallery’s fall show will feature the work of Chuck Prudhomme.
Chuck Prudhomme was raised in East Africa where he was artistically inspired by his father who was a nature photographer with an uncanny eye for composition. The family then moved to Exeter about 1962 where Chuck became member of the wrestling and football teams at EUHS and graduated in 1965.
After attending COS, he joined the Army in 1967, serving in Vietnam as a helicopter door gunner and pilot. Chuck flew helicopters for the Army and Coast Guard for 21 years. After retiring from the Coast Guard, he flew helicopters for emergency medical lifts and fire suppression, retiring in 2002 and beginning his journey as an artist.
Chuck is primarily self-taught, other than attending plein air oil painting workshops with a variety of renowned oil painters. His preference for plein air gives him a reason to travel and capture the essence and spirit of the locations he visits. Chuck prefers to paint in a loose, quick impressionistic style using a thick application of oil paint to create a tactile quality with bright expressive color with visible brushstrokes.
Chuck was selected to paint a large Christmas Ornament depicting a waterfall at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in Redding for the White House Tree in 2007, and was invited to the White House by Laura Bush.
He is represented by The Gallery in Mt. Shasta, Highland Art Gallery in Weaverville, California, and Favell Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He currently lives in Redding, but returns to Exeter often to visit his sister Christine who still lives here.
The Fall show will run until November
