Chuck Middlekauff

Born in Massachusetts and raised as an 'Air Force brat", Chuck was first exposed to the western culture of cowboys, truckers, cafes, diners, ranches and rodeos during cross country car trips with his family. He also watched more than a few Saturday matinee cowboy movies, and was the young "director" who passed out the cap guns and other props for neighborhood Cowboy and Indian games. As a longtime resident of Colorado, and on travels thought the West with his wife, Carol, he continues to e intrigued by those who have chosen the lonesome lifestyle.

Chuck received his bachelor's degree in fine art at metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado. A few years later he graduated with honors in graphic design from Colorado institute of Art. The schooling taught him to be observant and to select the most interesting viewpoint as he learned to work with composition, lighting, depth and textures.

He worked as a graphic designer in Denver and Los Angeles before taking up painting full time in 1988. After sampling several styles and subjects, he let the cowboy in him emerge and focused on painting watercolor slices of life from the cowboy culture. Cowboy lifestyles and the romance of the West are the heart of Chuck's 'Western still lifes."

"Boots, hats and blue jeans, fences windmills and pickup trucks, all the cowboy trappings and surroundings," he says, "have textures induced by weathering and years of hard use that are exciting to reproduce. " Chuck attempts to capture effects of intense light and shadows that take place after the sun breaks out between prairie thunderstorms and the mystique -- the essence -- of cowboys. But his cowboys aren't doing chores; they're at rest, and they sometimes play.

After a year and a half of traveling this country and of living and painting on the road, Chuck and Carol, a writer, have again settled in Longmont, Colorado. But their ongoing ventures throughout rural America and across the open spaces of the West continue to offer endless subject matter.

The constantly thank God for His saving grace through Jesus. They praise God for giving them talents, and for enabling them to use those talents to glorify Him. Chuck has often said, "God gave me this talent, and I'm trying not to disappoint Him."

Chuck's pieces hang in private and corporate collections across the U.S. and Europe.