Charlie Meckel opened a light-focused gallery in Silver City

Daily Press correspondent Aaron Rogers reported that Meckel Atelier officially opened on Oct. 2 at 808 N. Bullard St., giving Grant County painter Charlie Meckel a downtown studio and gallery in Silver City.

Rogers wrote that Meckel had carved out a name in galleries around the country with his distinctive take on railroad scenes. Rogers said the new room lets Meckel present that work to his community, alongside the wider range of work he has made.

What does the new atelier put on show?

Rogers reported that Meckel has been busy making the space a destination for events including the Silver City Art Association’s monthly First Friday Art Walk. Meckel described a practice reaching beyond the trains, with portraits, still lifes, landscapes and natural landscapes also in the mix.

“I deal in portraits, still lifes, landscapes, natural landscapes. I have done a lot of different things,” he said in his studio on Thursday.

“In the art business, you have to do something to be recognizable to build some momentum. The trains were something that I really focused on for a while to build and get myself recognized.”

His account makes the commercial logic plain: a recognizable motif can build momentum, while variety keeps the wider painting practice from resting on a single image. The new address turns that calculation into a local proposition.

How did painting become a livelihood?

Rogers traced Meckel’s first urge to paint to watching his mother struggle with craft-show sales, and to seeing his teacher make art into a career. Meckel recalled:

“I moved to Mimbres in 1991, and that is when I first started picking up the brush,” he said. “I dabbled in oil painting, and then I moved to Eugene, Oregon, and took art as an elective. I had a really good teacher, and he was making his art into a career.”

Rogers framed the teacher’s example as a revelation for the young Meckel.

“I had watched my mom struggle,” he said. “She would put her art in craft shows, and she would put so much effort into it and come home at the end of the day with $75 after putting together a month of preparation.

My teacher was making good money. He had a contract with Nordstrom’s department stores where they would buy 10 paintings from him every year, so he was making decent money.”

Rogers framed the episode as a lesson in art’s potential as a paying job. Meckel first displayed his work in coffee shops and galleries around Eugene, then showed in Santa Fe and New York City. He eventually returned to Silver City, where he settled back into the local art scene.

Why does light stand out in his paintings?

Rogers identified light as a defining feature of many Meckel paintings, whether natural sunlight crosses a landscape or electric lights shape a re-created holiday scene of Bullard Street. Rogers said Meckel’s work might be mistaken for a professional photograph.

For low-light subjects, Meckel supplements photographs with sketches and notes.

“Night scenes are hard to get photos of how they actually look — or how they look to me,” he said. “So I’ll make some sketches and take some notes to go with the photo.”

Rogers said those sketches and notes give Meckel a way to carry difficult night scenes onto canvas. Meckel Atelier’s regular hours run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday through Sunday.

The next First Friday Art Walk runs this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., according to Rogers. He directs readers to silvercityart.com/first-fridays for more information.

The next Art Walk will test whether Meckel can turn a national reputation into regular Silver City visits. His Thursday-to-Sunday schedule gives the gallery room to earn them. For a painter who has spent years becoming recognizable, local consistency is now the relevant verdict.