Grandpa and the Library: How Charles White Learned to Paint

A children’s book that describes Charles White’s childhood influences and inspiration.

Every day, young Charles White’s mother took him to the Chicago Public Library, where the librarians looked after him until six o'clock. At the library Charles looked carefully at the picture books the librarians give him and also at the people around him, later drawing what he saw on scraps of paper at home. He learned to be patient and observant - and, by watching art students painting in the park, how to mix and use oil paints. As he grew up, he painted the people he saw and admired, and ultimately became a great artist whose works now hang in museums all over the United States.

Written and illustrated by his son, C. Ian White, and featuring full-colour.

Written and illustrated by his son, C. Ian White, and featuring full-colour reproductions of Charles White’s own artworks, this deeply personal story traces the childhood influences that inspired young Charles to become an artist and a teacher.