The paintings of Charles Keck are intended to capture the intriguing ambience of Los Angeles during one of the most fascinating periods in the city's history. 

Charles Keck was born in 1913 in Iowa, and moved to Los Angeles in 1920. 

He graduated from Fairfax High in 1932, then majored in art at Los Angeles City College 1933-34. 

He was awarded a three-year scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute where he studied with Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, and Phil Paradise from 1935-38.  

From the late 1930s through the early 1940s he worked at Columbia Pictures as a background artist. 

Beginning in 1945 Keck taught at Hollywood Art Center School for several years before enrolling at UCLA, graduating in 1954 with a Master's Degree in Art Instruction.  He taught art at Los Angeles area schools for the next few decades.  From the late 1930s through the mid-1950s Charles Keck produced works in various media, primarily favoring watercolor and gouache. 

During this period he exhibited with the California Watercolor Society, and the Laguna Beach Art Association, from whom he received a First Prize in 1946.  Documenting the historic California scene in both landscape and genre compositions, Charles Keck painted from life, on location throughout the streets, harbors, rural farmlands, and beaches of Los Angeles and greater Southern California. 

Keck chose to focus on the local colors and activities of a rapidly growing metropolis, capturing scenes that are as varied as the city itself.  Keck favored no one image, subject, or point of view, but instead kept his eye moving across a constantly changing landscape, recording all its wonders, contradictions, and history. 

Special Awards:  1935/Three-year scholarship, Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles;  1940/Los Angeles Museum, Honorable Mention;  1941/Redlands Art Club Exhibition, Redlands, California, Honorable Mention;  1943/Unidentified Exhibition, Anchorage, Alaska, First and Third Prizes/watercolor;  1943/Laguna Beach Art Association, California, Honorable Mention/watercolor;  1946/Laguna Beach Art Association, California, First Prize/watercolor;  1947/Laguna Beach Art Association, California, Second Prize/watercolor;  1950/Laguna Beach Art Association, California, First Honorable Mention/watercolor.  Collections: Carville Marine Hospital, Louisiana  Geography/Places Visited: California/1920-1960s; Louisiana/1939, 1947, 1950s; Caribbean Islands/1939