Painter, sculptor, and educator Charles Cook Paine was born in Washington, D.C., on July 31, 1917. He moved with his mother and brother to La Honda, California, when Paine was a child, attending school in nearby Redwood City. He served as a radio operator in the U.S. Army in the Philippines and New Guinea, and, following his tour of duty, he moved with his wife to Palo Alto and enrolled in Standford University on the G.I. Bill. He studied mathematics and art, receiving his BA and MA in education. He would continue to attend summer art courses at Stanford, studying sculpture and painting. 

Paine taught math for over fifty years, becoming a beloved teacher in McKinley and Sequoia high schools and Canada College. Meanwhile, he continued to paint and sculpt, exhibting at the California Legion of Art, Stanford Art Center, Colorado College, the Crocker Art Museum, and elsewhere throughout the U.S. He was especially known for his saturated watercolor Abstracts, at times using inks on heavy, handmade, pre-dampened watercolor papers to achieve a blooming texture. He died in Redwood City on September 12, 2007.