Timeline
Fifty-six years of painting, told in four chapters: the life before the brush, the lucky break that started it, the working years, and the legacy still being written.
- Life
- Work
- Family
- Exhibition
Before the brush
A Gateshead childhood, the war, the RAF, and the best part of a decade chasing a football.
- 1930
Born in Gateshead
Charles Henry Rogers born on 16 January at 239 Westbourne Avenue, Bensham, Gateshead.
- 1939
Evacuated to Bishop Auckland
Evacuated at the outbreak of war; returned to Gateshead in 1944.
- 1948
RAF national service
Called up for national service with the Royal Air Force.
- 1950
Football trial at Sunderland
Trialled for Sunderland and played left back for Kibblesworth Colliery Welfare into his mid-thirties. A footballer first, a painter second.
The lucky break
A knee injury, a borrowed week at his aunt’s window, and the back lane that set the course of everything after.
- 1964
The knee injury that started it all
A heavy blow in a cup tie laid him up for a week. Convalescing at his aunt Violet’s on Bensham Road, he looked out at the back lane opposite and painted it. Cotfield Street was demolished soon after.
The back streets, where it began I feel I have spent much of my career being pursued by bulldozers.
Charlie Rogers - 1965
First exhibition
A three-man show at the Univision Gallery, Bigg Market, Newcastle, in March. He appeared on BBC Look North and met Norman Cornish, who became a lifelong friend.
- 1967
Royal Academy debut
His first painting accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, the first of four.
- 1971
Redundancy
Made redundant from his groundsman job, which opened the door to painting full-time.
The painting years
Marriage, fatherhood, and recognition that ran from a Bigg Market gallery to the Royal Academy.
- 1973
Marriage to Ann
Married Ann Henderson, a librarian from Haltwhistle, after meeting at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle.
- 1974
Full-time artist, and a son
Committed to painting full-time. His son, Charlie Junior, was born the same year.
Charlie with his family - 1981
Introduced to Prince Charles
Presented to Prince Charles at the Midsummer Eve Soirée, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same period.
- 1994
Royal Charity Exhibition
Work shown at a Royal Charity Exhibition opened by Princess Margaret.
Last years and legacy
Loss, a final exhibition, and the campaign to set his name beside Lowry and Cornish.
- 2015
Ann’s death
Ann Rogers died, having been Charlie’s companion and support for more than forty years.
- 2016
Final exhibition
His final lifetime exhibition, at Low Fell Library, dedicated to Ann.
- 2020
Death at Aspen Court
Died on 27 April at Aspen Court Care Home, one of eleven residents lost in the first wave of Covid. His last painting, unfinished, was the view from his window across the rooftops of St Vincent Street.
- 2022
A book begins
Brian Rankin begins the research that becomes Pursued by Bulldozers.
- 2024
Belonging at the Laing
Blackwell Lane, Gateshead 1981 selected for the Belonging exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery.