As a high school sophomore, Charleen won a place in the All-New York Youth Orchestra playing the violin and performing at times in Carnegie Hall. A classical pianist, she has recorded several CDs.

by Len Lear

“The earth has its music for those who will listen.” – George Santayana

If ever there was a person dedicated to producing beauty in the arts, it is Charleen Stevens Watson, a Flourtown resident who previously lived in Chestnut Hill for more than 30 years. The expression “Renaissance woman (or man)” has probably been used hyperbolically at times in this and other publications, but it definitely applies to Charleen.

Stevens, who returns to the Center on the Hill after two years with an exhibit of stunning new nature photographs from April 1 to 30, is no dilettante. She has worked at the highest level of excellence in classical music, Chinese silk painting, gardening, Japanese flower arranging, songwriting and painting as well as photography.

Charleen, when asked her age, said, “Do you really have to publicize my age? It's not that I don't want to get old, but I'm not done being young. She is self-taught in art and photography, having earned degrees in music from the High School of Music and Art and Hunter College in New York City. “I had to choose,” she said last week. “Music involved private study and instruments, but I could always sketch people on the bus or trees in the park, and I was always photographing them, too … The world needs more devotion to beauty. Through art we can participate in creation, find ourselves in harmony with nature and better relate to one another."

Growing up in Whitestone, Queens, New York, Charleen learned to play the piano with the sympathetic urging of her parents, both of whom enthusiastically played the piano for enjoyment. “My parents and grandparents gave me recordings of orchestral music such as Tchaikovsky’s 'Nutcracker' when I was 5 years old. As a child I used to listen to Brahms' ‘Hungarian Dances’ and dance around the living room. My mother would take me to plays and concerts in Manhattan.”

At first, Charleen was not consistent in practicing the piano, "but when I was 8, I very, very much wanted a kitten. My mother said that if I played the piano every day for a year I could get one. And I did it. She had to get me a kitten. By then I was into playing the piano.”

Playing the violin as well as the piano in elementary school, she auditioned for and was accepted into one of New York City's prestigious specialized public schools. As a sophomore she won a place in the All-New York Youth Orchestra playing the violin, even performing at times in Carnegie Hall.

After graduation from college, Charleen secured a job with Harriet Wild Fabric Arts in New York because of her self-taught drawing ability and was in charge of colorings and repeats for upholstery and drapery. She then taught music in New York public schools for a few years, but she wanted to see the world, so she exchanged teaching for the glamorous role of a stewardess for Capital Airways. This was during the Vietnam War, and she often flew charter flights with American servicemen and women to airbases in Hawaii and Japan.

After working in the business world, however, Charleen returned to the more traditional role of wife and mother (of two girls) but eventually returned to art and then music, teaching piano to adults and children in the Chestnut Hill area.

At the age of 40 she began studying Chinese brush painting with the late Phoebe Shih, who taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at her home studio in Flourtown. Painting mostly flowers, Charleen was inspired to take a workshop in silk painting, which led her to establish a scarf-painting business. She produced original creations, which were featured at the Deb Shop in Chestnut Hill and the Philadelphia Art Museum Crafts Shop.

Charleen studied Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) with the late Bernice Makin, a famed horticulturist, and she won a blue ribbon and “Best of the Day” in the Philadelphia Flower Show with her first solo entry. “Composition translates into all these areas,” Charleen explained.

Her photos are of flowers, birds, pets and landscapes. “I had so many good photos that just popped out at me when I was reviewing them one snowy winter day, so I just had to do something with them and get them out to the public,” she recalled. “But it’s still as much work as when you’re a young person. Shooting and framing are only the tip of the iceberg. Selling and marketing are the grunt-work, not as much fun but necessary if you want to make a profit.”

Charleen, who is also a multi-award winner in Philadelphia’s City Gardens Contest, said about her garden in an earlier interview, "It's another way to create beauty. I love to go out into the garden, clean up and dig around. Mainly I have a flower garden ... and I have a little pond with a family of fish and frogs. Having a garden improves one's quality of life. I receive joy being with nature either in my garden or down at the Wissahickon or at Pastorius Park looking at the beautiful trees reflected in the pond. I often get a chill from wonderful music or from poetry or from nature. Who needs drugs?"

Charleen can be seen on YouTube videos playing classical music, and CDs of her piano music are available on Amazon.com. They include, "My Favorite Chopin," "The German Romantics" with music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Brahms; and "Happy Birthday Variations," classical variations composed by Charleen in the style of Mozart, Beethoven, Bizet, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Joplin and more..

Charleen has exhibited her paintings at Cathedral Village, Mathers Mill, First Trust Bank, Norristown Art League and Woodmere Art Museum. Her photos were exhibited at the Chevy Chase Club in the Washington, D.C., area on the weekend of March 8 to 11. Charleen’s photos are sold at The Hill Company, The Tailored Home, Tamarindo Restaurant in Flourtown and through her website, accomplishedwoman.org. The Center on the Hill is in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave. An artist’s reception will be held Thursday, April 5, 5 to 7 p.m.

Charleen's husband, Scott M. Watson, is the founder of the firm, SWA Lighting Design, and has been a professional lighting consultant for over 30 years. Ron Petrou also contributed to this article.