Charles Edward Gill was born in Caldwell, Idaho, in 1933. He began painting at just 12 years old. He received a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1955 from the California College of Arts and Crafts where he studied with famed American painter and printmaker Richard Diebenkorn. Gill received a master's of fine arts from Mills College and then became immersed in the culture of artists and teachers in the Bay Area. During that time, he held several teaching positions, primarily at the California College of Arts and Crafts where he taught for 35 years. He also became associated with the Bay Area Figurative School painters like Diebenkorn and colleagues Manuel Neri, Nathan Oliveira, Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean.

With his ties to the Bay Area Figurative School and the first-generation Abstract Expressionists, he has long explored iterations on still lifes and landscapes: his 'Chip Series' is an ongoing exploration that began with blank index cards he daubed with paint to test colors. Over the years, Gill amassed a stash of color notations which, when he considered en masse, became abstract formal compositions. His “Headcheese” series found him deconstructing and reconstituting images of 1950s interiors pulled from the pages of Ladies Home Journal.

Since retiring in 1998 from teaching, Gill has made Boise, Idaho his home, exhibiting there at Stewart Gallery, as well as the College of Idaho, and Boise Art Museum and the Osaka University of the Arts in Japan, Berkeley Gallery in California, Green Gallery in California, California College of Arts and Crafts, Jerrold Morris Gallery in Toronto, and State University of New York at Buffalo, California. He has received numerous awards including the 2006 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Idaho Commission on the Arts, the 2005 Purchase award from Boise Art Museum, and the 2004 Juror’s Award, Idaho Triennial Exhibition, Boise Art Museum.