Charles Williams Spotlight
Charles Williams
Written by Nor Osborne, September 2025
On the corner of Elm St and Main St in Granville stands the Old Academy Building, a petite white building lined with huge green shutters. Just behind its green wooden door is a room brimming with art.
The art is the product of the talent and dedication of Charles Williams, the resident artist of the building at the time I visited. His work lines the walls, paintings of isolated landscapes with an ominous atmosphere. He depicts empty scenes focused clouds, fields, roads, and trees through a moody and mysterious lens. If his paintings were songs, he believes they would be played in a melancholic, minor key.
“I create landscape art, but I think of it as more abstract. Every space becomes a psychological place,” Charles says.
He’s particularly interested in the relationship between shadow and light in these scenes.
“I see the drama of the light behind every object,” he explains. “It’s captivating.”
A large majority of his paintings are inspired by spots he has passed in Ohio as well as upstate New York, the two states that have fostered his most creativity.
Charlie hails from Youngstown, Ohio. After receiving his degree from John Carroll University, he moved to New York. Charles got his start working on the sets of TV shows, where he was a scenic painter, builder, and later set designer for production companies such as Nickelodeon. He worked on exercising artistic skills outside of painting, designing and building cabinetry for home offices and kitchens.
Charles then found a calling in renovating historic homes.
“That's where my passion really came in, I absolutely loved it,” he says. “It really upsets me how soulless modern housing developments are. There’s no more character.”
It was ultimately his love for antique houses that brought him to Granville. When his family was looking to return to Ohio in 2019, he felt truly drawn in by Granville’s architecture, full of history and character.
Working in the Old Academy has allowed Charles to truly connect with this love of historical buildings. The historic two story school house has experienced many different inhabitants through the years. First built by the Granville Congregational Church, it has been a school for girls, a school for boys, a Welsh speaking church, a meeting house, a courtroom, a grange hall, and an events space. Charles will be inhabiting the space through the end of the summer of 2025.
Charles’ art is a key part of his soul. “My art is just innate,” he explains. “It's an innate desire to create.”
“I'll never stop, even if my pieces don't sell. Painting makes me more comfortable with the world as it is now. I want to share that experience.”