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Native Ohio plein-air watercolorist and concert pianist Charles Clevenger has combined careers in music and art. He studied watercolor with I. D. Washington and Darrell Koons, and piano performance with Imogene Darling, Raymond Dudley, and Richard Morris. Primarily a location painter, Clevenger’s work is characterized by an immediacy and a sense of place only possible by “being there.” His transparent watercolors are noted for their crisp whites, virtuoso brushwork, and convincing use of the light.
The artist holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. As a painter, his works hang in numerous private, public, corporate, and collegiate collections. His favorite visual subjects are character studies of people and images drawn from his travels around America.
His most recent large painting project has been a series of the historic "Ohio Bicentennial" barns.
Dr. Clevenger has served on the faculty of Cedarville University for 21 years, where he is a Full Professor of Piano in the Music Department, and teaches watercolor in the Art program. In 2002 he was elected Faculty Member of the Year by the student body. He resides in Cedarville, Ohio with his wife Rhonda and daughter Courtenay.
Chuck may be contacted by e-mail at home, or (for continuing education credit questions) Cedarville University; by phone at 937.766.5309, or by mail at: P.O. Box 41, Cedarville, OH 45314.
Charles E. Clevenger is a lifelong resident of the beautiful hill country of Southern Ohio. The foothills of the Appalachian Mountains—the landscape, the people and the culture— have all had a strong visual influence upon how he sees his world. Visually and consciously, the landscape and the people set the tone for his photographic endeavors. He has exhibited his photographs in numerous gallery exhibitions over the past twenty years, including four two-man shows with his watercolor artist son, and has won many awards and prizes. Charlie attributes much of his professional growth to his own attendance at photographic workshops over the years, especially in New England and the Southwest, and he knows how to communicate effectively in a workshop environment.
Clevenger enjoys sharing his photographic insights with students; over the years he has taught many photography classes for the Elderhostel program through Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. As a photographer, writer, and poet, his work has frequently been published in Country and Country Extra Magazines and Over the Back Fence Magazine. He writes a column with accompanying photographs for a weekly southern Ohio newspaper, The Scioto Voice.
His photographic work is well known and collected throughout the Appalachian foothills region. An avid outdoor color photographer, Charlie also enjoys the discipline of black-and-white photography and the creative aspects of the darkroom, where he brings to life – the “Fine Art of Seeing.”
Charlie may be contacted by e-mail at home, by phone at 740.456.5430, or by mail at: 720 Lakeview Avenue, New Boston, OH 45662.
