"Charles Meanwell has a particular approach to painting in which he hinges together constellations of coloured shapes on a dark ground. Like a jigsaw puzzle, painted pieces leave spaces between, allowing rivulets of dark ground to animate the composition, preventing any sort of static settling of the building blocks of the picture. Meanwell’s mapping out of shapes and marks sets up a tenuous spatial play: he creates a bounce between the beautiful scumbled surface and the depth of a stage set out by a variety of colour values coming together to describe illusionistic space. The finished work is as pleasing as an abstract colour field as it is satisfying as an evocation of a landscape or an interior. It is hardly surprising that Meanwell is also an accomplished poet – his paintings, like wonderful poetry, leave room for the reader/viewer to wander in and make the scene one’s own."
-Stuart Reid, Director/Curator, Tom Thomson Art Gallery
