Charles Eckart was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Yosemite Valley. He is a painter who started etching with his own press in 1966. The etching has always paralleled the various phases of his painting development. After focusing on the figure for many years, his work changed to landscape after he moved from San Francisco to Point Reyes in 1985.

Eckart's work has developed from early expressionist figurative images to the current abstracted landscapes, reflecting a strong gestural style and an emphasis on texture and energy. The most recent etchings, the Ground Cover series, are taken from direct observations of the intimate landscape. They could be called painter's prints because they are created more closely to the way a painting is constructed: by building up layers of pigment.