The Little Tokyo

36 X 48 acrylic on canvas, unframed ABOUT THE ART: TUNE IN, Charles’ debut art show of original COLOR TV paintings is a series of acrylic on canvas portraits celebrating mid-century era television sets. His paintings represent the variety of TV cabinet styles made to match the popular interior décor and furniture styles of the late 50s and early 60s; Contemporary, Modern, Early American, Ranch, French Provincial, Chinese Modern and more. “Imagine it’s the age of space and you’ve just stepped into a TV store,” says Charles. “The era when TVs were a piece of finely detailed furniture made with richly stained woods, sparkling speaker grill cloth and shapely screens.   Each of Charles’ television set “models” are named after a Southern California city or neighborhood: The Westwood, The Malibu, The Newport Beach, The Chinatown, The Sherman Oaks, The San Fernando Valley, The Beverly Hills, The Pasadena, The Miracle Mile, The Hollywood, and of course, The Palm Springs. BACKSTORY: As a child of the 60s and 70s, not only did I enjoy watching Television shows, I enjoyed the TV sets themselves. Vintage TV’s have always attracted and inspired me. When the pandemic hit that was my cue to get productive. For me the lockdown was going to be a “creative lockdown.” Without skipping a beat, I stocked up on art supplies and started spreading paint on canvas. I didn’t think about what to paint, I just painted the first thing I wanted to see on a canvas: a marvelous mid-century television set in all its glory with bright color TV bars on the screen and sparkly speaker cloth. One painting inspired another as I interpreted the various cabinet styles as though they would have appeared illustrated in brochures or magazine ads.   By the time the pandemic was over, I had enough paintings to fill a manufacturer’s catalog, TV showroom and art gallery. And now you are welcome to TUNE IN to my TV portrait paintings.