Why People Love Charley's Paintings

There are two kinds of artists. It doesn't matter if you are talking about visual arts, or music, or anything else. The first kind of artist tries to find out everything he can about his new passion. He spends his early years as a student studying and learning about the work, techniques, and the life stories of all the artists he admires. He learns as much as he can about his craft, trying out different media, exploring new ideas, and learning different ways of approaching his work. After a time, he achieves some kind of success. Maybe he writes a novel that the critics praise and sells a lot of copies. Maybe he writes a song that really gets the customers rocking in the bar where his band plays. Maybe he finds a group of colors that he enjoys working with and likes the feeling he gets when he looks at the paintings he has created with that pallet of colors. He then tries to refine his techniques. He tries to improve on his original success by making a better version of the novel, or the song, or the painting.

Then there is a second smaller group of artists. They start out pretty much the same way. They start out as students, they study their mentors, and they spend years working on their craft. What is different about this group is that while they become much more knowledgeable and experienced artists, they never really give up being students. They are always searching for new ideas, new ways of doing things, new experiences.

As an artist, Charley Edelman belongs to the second group. He knows that the rewards that come from his craft are in the exploration and the journey. I have known Charley, for a long time. I am the proud owner of several of his paintings. I have been fortunate to witness his journey over the years. It has been my pleasure to see the evolution of his work and sensibility in his paintings. In my opinion his best work has been done in the last few years. You can see for yourself on his website:

You can see his work and see what he is up to. There is even a video in which Charley talks a bit about the process that he goes through when he creates.

3/5/2023      ~Steven Freedman~