Almost a decade ago, Welsh baker Charles Roland Evans traded flour for acrylics to become a full-time sporting artist. One of his first supporters was Bettws Hall, who proudly displayed his paintings in their gun room – helping to put his work on the map.
This previous cover artist reflects on his creative journey, passion for fieldsports, and why dogs and guns remain his greatest inspirations.
“I’m 48 but don’t feel it,” Charles says, speaking from his home in Powys, mid-Wales, just minutes from Bettws Hall.
“I’ve been with my partner Gemma for 30 years. We’ve got a nine-year-old daughter, Brodie, and we’re very close.”
Charles has long dreamt of being featured on the Fieldsports Journal cover. “I’m pinching myself,” he admits. “I don’t use a gallery or publicist, I just post when I can on Instagram. I’m always painting.”
Instagram: @charles_r_evans_fineart
“There’s rarely a moment when I’m not thinking about fieldsports,” Charles says.
He lives just five minutes from the River Severn, which offers excellent trout and grayling fishing — and the odd salmon if you put in the hours. “From my studio, I can watch pigeons dropping into the fields outside. I’m constantly working out flight lines.”
He has permission over 100 acres and feels fortunate to shoot from his back door.
Charles credits his late father Gordon for his love of the countryside. “He was still shooting at 86. We were very close. I moved back to Wales to be near him during his final years, and we spent nearly every spare moment in the field together.”
Now, Charles hopes to pass on that same love to his daughter. “She’s always outdoors. As she gets older, the world of shooting, fishing and gundogs is opening up to her fully.”
Charles trained in stopmotion animation and set design at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. But he spent his first 20 years as a baker. “I worked in a family-run bakery, baking 300 loaves and 500 rolls a day.”
After Brodie was born, the early mornings became too much. So he pivoted, becoming an artist and full-time dad.
“I didn’t go to a fancy art school. I’m completely self-taught. I started with colouring pencils sketching gamebirds, then moved to acrylics. I like their speed — oils take too long to dry.”
He uses a palette knife for his large landscapes and alternates between small, detailed paintings and bold, abstract backgrounds. “I rarely take commissions. I just paint whatever pops into my head.”
Charles draws inspiration from wildlife photographers like Tarquin Millington-Drake and Emily Graham. “Tarquin’s grey partridge photos are incredible,” he says.
His studio? A spare bedroom — chaotic and full of canvasses, paints and fishing gear. “In one corner, you’ll find pigeon decoys. In another, my trout rods. Gemma’s always asking me to tidy up.” While painting, Charles often plays YouTube videos of Dave Carrie and Jonathan McGee shooting high pheasants.
The family’s German shorthaired pointer, Ghillie, is never far from his side. “He’s our pet, my gundog, my fishing partner and studio dog.”
When their last pointer passed away, Charles couldn’t bring himself to get another for two years. “Eventually, I realised I couldn’t be without one. I probably spend too much time training Ghillie and not enough painting.”
And yes, Ghillie sleeps on the bed.
The first painting Charles ever sold was called The Close Season – a leaping pheasant. It sold for £150 at his local pub, The Nag’s Head. “It sold quickly and gave me the confidence to carry on.”
He’s proudest of the work that’s helped raise money for charity:
A white pheasant painting donated to Bettws Hall for the Lingen Davies Centre for cancer care
A grouse trio auctioned for the Atlantic Salmon Trust, now hanging in Alnwick Castle
“Over the years, my paintings have raised thousands for causes close to my heart.”
Contemporary wildlife painter Jenna von Benedikt tells us how her large format abstract oil pictures of big game strive to capture the ethereal magic of the outdoors
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