Born in Quitman, Texas, in 1891, Charles Bowling did not begin to study art seriously until the age of thirty-five. Throughout his life he worked as an engineer for the Texas Power and Light Company and practiced his art in his spare time. He studied at the Dallas Art Institute with Olin Herman Travis, then studied independently with Frank Klepper and Alexandre Hogue. During the Depression he secured drafting jobs for Otis Dozier and William Lester, enabling them to make a living while continuing to paint. He exhibited at the Texas Centennial, and his major work of the period was Church at the Crossroads, which was shown at the Thirteen Dallas Artists exhibition later that year. He was also in the charter group of the Lone Star Printmakers. He acquired a lithography press in 1941 and began to print his own work as well as that of some of his colleagues. His first one-man show occurred in 1939: he was given a larger exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in 1941. His work won many purchase prizes in the period, and he exhibited in numerous national annual exhibitions, including shows held in New York, Denver, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. A lifelong artist, Bowling was forced to give up painting in 1965 due to failing eyesight. He died of a heart attack in 1985. Sources: Stewart, Rick. Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle. Texas Monthly Press: Austin, 1985, (pages 153-154).