the Artist
In the summer of 1942 Maryland native
Charles L. Amos was 11 years old riding the rails to attend
the Marjorie Martinet School of Fine and Commercial Art in
Baltimore, Maryland.
Today Amos is a nationally known as the “ Master Painter
of Railway Heritage” who has sold more than 300 paintings.
In his youth, Amos was trained in the classical find art tradition
of William Merritt Chase as an artist, studying under the tutelage
of well-renowned Baltimore artist Marjorie D. Martinet, who was
a prized student of William Merritt Chase.
Upon graduation, the realist tradition of classical painting was
somewhat in disfavor which lead Amos to box up his brushes and
pursue another passion….that of railroading. His experience
in both art and railroading is full of diversity.
In 1952, Charlie joined the Western Maryland Railway to pursue,
yet another love, railroading. His railroad career took in many
facets of the industry, railroad clerk, brakeman, engineman, engineer,
yardmaster, trainmaster, assistant superintendent, and special
assistant to the deputy of the Federal Railroad Administration
all of which has helped to develop the special blend of emotion
and realism found in his work.
In 1984, Amos resigned as executive director of the State Rail
Programs Division of the Association of American Railroads, picked
up his brushes again and began to paint full time.
Today in his Cumberland Studio, Amos uses the easel and solid
mahogany palette (held in his right hand, because he’s a
southpaw) that were gifts from Marjorie Martinet and were so inscribed
upon his graduation in 1949.
His studio located above the federal courthouse affords Amos a
view of the trains pulling in and out of the railroad station.
As a certified locomotive engineer, qualified on both steam and
diesel, and as someone who has been accountable for the operation
of a railroad, Amos feels a special responsibility as a professional
artist to work from his “unique vantage point”. My
task is to portray the railroad from the “insider’s
perspective” by conveying the feeling of opening the throttle
of a massive steam locomotive and to capture on canvas the life,
breath, sounds, sights, and smells of the locomotive“.
Two successful careers have been combined into a single busy life.
Combining the classic William Merritt Chase School of American
Painting with the glorious days of the American Railway.
Amos has been commissioned by many public and private organizations
and individuals to capture the Railway Heritage.
His work has been exhibited throughout the nation by many railroads,
corporations, colleges, universities and institutions. Although
the majority of his paintings are of the Railway scene, his special
blend of impressionism and realism lends itself well to his many
other paintings of landscapes, portraits and other subjects.
Amos would like as a painter “to be a positive influence
on the lives of those who view my work both now and in the future“.
As Luscious Beebe stated “the steam locomotive, which was
more beautiful than any other integrated mechanical devising of
man’s genius and necessity, and which will forever haunt
the human memory with its wonder”. This about sums it up
for Amos.
