CHARLES Wilcox didn’t necessarily expect to be a highly-successful artist.

“It’s a funny story,” he remarks.

The artist was working in Yackandandah and would collect driftwood on his days off work.

One day he made a driftwood fish.

“Someone said, ‘I really liked that, would you be interested in selling it?’” he said.

From there, Charles has never really looked back.

“I started selling them in shops down around the coastal side of Victoria and then galleries all around Australia and overseas,”

“It got to a point where the galleries were calling me and getting them to take them to client's homes before I even got into the gallery lounge.

“The backorder was building up that much that they were struggling to get stock and I was pretty much dropping off artworks to people’s homes.”

Charles travels to far north Queensland a couple times a year to collect driftwood for his famous sculptures.

“I find everything from pieces of driftwood from dug-out canoes to paddles that have washed up from PNG,” he said.

“There’s a lot of parts of Victoria and New South Wales where you can't actually take driftwood from the beaches, so I go to Queensland.

“The timbers up there are rainforest hardwoods; they're a lot denser and don't rot.”

This success has transferred beyond the original sculptures, with a line of jewellery partnered with Melbourne Gold and Silver sold all over the country.

The artwork Charles creates is more than the driftwood sculptures.

His latest projects include designing bronze sculptures for super yachts in Queensland.

A major feature at the gallery is a collection portraits painted on old newspapers, featuring imagery of the local environment.

Much like the driftwood, these artworks are now core to Charles’ work and came about by accident.

“My friend and then-future brother-in-law was short on staff one day working in demolition and I found newspapers underneath some lino,” he said.

“I painted a picture on it - I can't remember what the first one was - I actually didn’t like it and I put it near the bin.

“Two people came past the gallery studio that I had at the time and said, ‘that's really cool are you selling it?’

“That's where it started off and I've painted thousands now.

“I now sell them all over the world.”

Charles collects newspapers to turn into his canvases, using each backdrop to tell a story reflected in the portrait.

“I think newspapers are a bit of a time capsule,” he said.

“When you see some of these old newspapers you know you see things you would never normally look up.

“They’re a window to the past and I love that.

“I love the old ads and the difference in the cost of things.

“People love the old ads and the stories and reading about things.

“I've tried to bring the artworks up to date it with brighter colours and combining the old and the new.”

As Charles and his wife Tory started looking for a place to raise a family, Mansfield presented itself as an option.

They acquired the location for Charles’ gallery in May 2023 packing up the Sorrento gallery and preparing the new site for its opening.

“We're going to be here hopefully forever,” he said.

“My dad used to do gold mining up around Beechworth and Yackandandah and I grew up there as a kid.”

His wife Tory added, “My mum lives up here as well.”

Moving to the High Country has also changed Charles’ art, with the famous snorkels replaced with ski goggles and fish with horses.

“I've had to make a bit of a shift in what I've done from nautical work into more inland work,” he said.

“I used to do a lot of paintings of the girls with a mask and snorkel which was a coastal theme.

“Now we are switching to the snowboard helmets with Mt Buller in the background as well as horse riding and the freshwater fish sculptures,” he said.

“Every exhibition is going to be a different series.

“I'll be doing a horse riding series, a hunting series, a fishing series and probably a whole series on fly fishing.

“I’ll release different things that are very High Country based and over summer I will introduce some of the more coastal work so people who have a love of the beach will be able to see that.”

The process to fit out the gallery has also been a challenge, as Charles continues to fulfil the backlog of commissions and other large scale projects.

The opening of the Mansfield Gallery in summer was a huge success with all artworks selling in two weeks.

“My mother always said it pays to advertise and we had a great response with the advertisement in Mansfield Courier.”

“Since the summer opening a number of locals have asked why the gallery was closed for so many months. With heavy rainfall early in the year the horse stable and then shed I was working out of both flooded on three occasions and as a result destroyed the works I prepared for Easter”

“I was fortunate enough to receive a call from local builder Lachie Cronin who stepped up to the plate and has just completed my new studio in time for winter, I will now be in a better position to regularly stock up the gallery.”

One of the biggest challenges as my work load increases is making the time to start new series my latest project is making mini skimobile feature lights created out of recycled parts I was given from Delatite mowers and chainsaws in town”

“We have been so fortunate to have had so much support from the locals of Mansfield and are very excited about the future of High Country artwork. “

The Wilcox Gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 3pm during each exhibition or until works sell out.