Chuck Prudhomme is one of the North State’s most prolific artists, possibly one of the most prolific in the West. His background is also
extraordinary. Born to missionary parents, he was raised in the bush of Tanzania, East Africa, and later lived in Liberia, West Africa. There, he developed an affinity for nature and a budding interest in art. His first art piece was a drawing of a giraffe that he saw while camping.
When Chuck was a teenager, his family left Africa and moved to Exeter, California, in time for him to graduate from Exeter Union High School in 1965. After two years of college, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Prudhomme served two tours in Vietnam, as a helicopter gunner from 1968 to 1969 and as a helicopter pilot from 1971 to 1972. After Vietnam, he transferred to the Coast Guard, where he flew icebreaking missions in Antarctica, Greenland, and the Bering Sea and search-and-rescue missions in Northern California.
After retiring from the military, he flew emergency medical helicopters for hospitals and fire-suppression missions for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and he served as safety officer for Rocky Mountain Helicopters, LLC. Chuck’s 35-year career as a helicopter pilot ended in 2002, when he suffered a cardiac arrest and underwent open-heart surgery.
After recovering, Prudhomme turned to art. With only a drawing class at Shasta College and some figure-painting work-shops as training, he quickly embraced the plein air method of painting on site. He says that “I enjoy this approach because it allows me to spend time in dramatic locations with stories to tell through my painting. I am interested in capturing the feel of a place and the hidden story. I have a particular interest in old, forgotten houses, structures, wilderness landscapes, and waters.”
He enjoys an impressionistic style with a thick application of oil paint and tactile brush strokes. He paints quickly so as to capture a feeling, rather than an exact replication. Remarkably, he completes on average about 250 paintings a year. Prudhomme has won several bestin-show awards across the West.
In 2007, he was selected to paint a large Christmas tree ornament showing Whiskeytown Falls (in the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area) for the White House Christmas tree, and he and his wife, Shay, attended the official function, hosted by first lady Laura Bush. When not painting, Chuck teaches classes for other aspiring artists. He also is an avid kayaker, having “kayaked all of the rivers and waterways in Northern California,” many of which he has memorialized in oil.