South Florida Oil Paintings by Charles Bullet

Charles Bullet, Ft. Myers. Oil on board, 9 by 14 inches.

 

Charles Bullet arrived in Fort Myers for the winter season of 1918. Born in Cincinnati, Bullet lived most of his life across the Ohio River in Campbell County, Kentucky. The son of sculptor and stoneworker Charles Bullett, Bullet dropped the last “t” from his name. He painted on Sanibel and Captiva Islands, becoming as well known for his early Florida paintings as he was for his work in Kentucky and Indiana.

The Fort Myers Tropical News commented on Bullet’s work, “There is a notable exhibition of oil paintings comprised of natural Florida landscapes on display in the Parker music store on First Street, next to the Bradford Hotel. These paintings are from the brush of Chas. Bullet, painter of note from Cincinnati, Ohio, and represent work covering a period of over two months. This is the fourth winter Mr. Bullet has spent in Lee County, arriving here on Christmas day this season, going immediately to Captiva Island where the majority of his work was done. Mr. Bullet also traveled back and forth to various islands on the Lee County coast including Sanibel and Bokeelia. The paintings are all landscapes. . . . Two very exceptional paintings, one depicting a moonlight scene on the gulf and the other a sunset scene, are on exhibition. These pictures show not only a masterly hand but a rare understanding of placing the life and soul of nature in the work. Other scenes are of the surf coming in on the beach, a scene showing storm cloud effect over the gulf, a camp fire scene in the early evening, palm scenes . . . all taken from life here in Lee County. . . . He has the happy faculty of not only selecting the most beautiful settings and scenes but of portraying them in nature’s true colors, magnificent as they are here in South Florida.”

Bullet placed an advertisement in the Fort Myers Press, February 17, 1927, notifying the community of a free exhibition of his work at the Community House and the last chance to get one of his fine oil paintings of Florida scenes. He returned home to Fort Thomas, Kentucky, and died suddenly on April 1, 1927, at the age of sixty-three.

Exhibits: Women’s Pan-Hellenic Society, Ellis Building, Fort Myers, February 1927.

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