FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
Life the greatest teacher of all for local artist
BY SUZANNE LOUDAMY Staff writer

Whitehouse artist Charles Brooks works in a variety of media including canvas and wood, with Southwestern or "cowboy art" his specialty.

The thought of cactus and cowboys generally stirs up an image of rugged terrain and weathered skin. It is just that kind of dramatic detail that Charles Brooks of Whitehouse captures on canvas and in wood.

Born in Alabama in 1938, Brooks said drawing came as natural as playing to him as a little boy. Some of his earliest memories are drawing farm animals and his Dad teaching him the art of making toys from wood.

"When I got older sports and girls came along and I got too busy to spend time drawing," Brooks said. "When I went to college and I took an art class, I thought what they were trying to teach me was just plum silly."

Other than that class, which he did not complete, Brooks never took an art lesson in his life. Life was his teacher.

After graduating from high school, his first job landed him in West Texas, deep in the heart of ranching country, surrounded by ranches such as the Matador Ranch, Pitchfork, 6666 and many more.

"Old Home Place" is one of Charles Brooks' drawings. To view more of his work, visit his website at www.brookswoodstudio.com.

Brooks met and married his wife Kathy in 1960. They have traveled thousands of miles visiting art galleries throughout the country.

After going back to school at Texas Tech in Lubbock, he took a job with Goodyear and moved the family to East Texas. He and Kathy made their home in Whitehouse where they owned and operated an art galler y for five years. He sold the gallery and began traveling to art shows exhibiting his wood sculpture.

"While I was working, we could only make about four or five shows a year," Brooks said. "After I retired we were on the road all the time, making up to 20 shows a year. It's more like six now."

He underwent back surgery that knocked him out of commission for a while.

Brooks now devotes the majority of his time to drawing his favorite subject: the cowboy and his horse. He has exhibited in art shows in several states including Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

"We mainly do juried shows," Brooks said. "This weekend we'll be in Edom for the Festival of the Arts."

The Brooks home is filled with beautiful western and Native American pieces from various artists. Many are Brooks' own creations, many others from those he has met or admired over the years.

Brooks is currently working on a pencil drawing of an elk from a photo he took on a visit they made to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. He says some of his best ideas come just by accident.

Brooks works from photos. He will take a photo of his subject or work from a submitted photo, and sometimes spend 200-plus hours on a drawing, depending on its size.

Southwestern art and cowboy art are his specialty. The closest thing to what he calls abstract art might come in the form of some of his carvings or turnings.

Along with exquisite bowls and vessels Brooks has created several quite unique platters from warm and unusually marked woods. His skilled eye allows him to see great potential in even a marred or misshapen piece of wood.

Brooks considers himself just a common kind of guy, nothing special. Guess God kind of views him the way Brooks sees some that wood: a little rough around the edges, but with great potential.