Born in Minnesota in 1950, Thysell lived in Fargo, North Dakota, from 1975 to 1986, serving successively on the staffs of the Plains Art Museum, Rourke Gallery, the Fargo Public Schools and the North Dakota Council on the Arts (Artist-in-residence since 1981).

Thysell currently lives and works in Minneapolis.
Painted with oil on gessoed printing paper, Thysell’s “Heads” are a series he began in 1987.  Eventually to appear in as many as 1,000 variations, the “Heads” are as varied and creative as the artist’s imagination.

The “Heads” of Charles Thysell are the stylistic and spiritual descendants of the whimsical paintings and drawings of Paul Klee and the robustly modeled women of Picasso’s “classical” period.  With rich, thick strokes of lushly blended color, Thysell explores the relationships between abstract forms and representational imagery.