Charles Stokes (1944–2008) was a painter and sculptor and a prominent member of the last generation of artists identified with the Northwest School. He was the first winner of the prestigious Betty Bowen Award in concert with the Seattle Art Museum in 1979. His works are held by Northwest museums and institutions, most prominently the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, Washington, and by numerous private collectors. Revered as an energetic, charismatic, original, and meticulous artist and teacher, he spent his final two decades in self-imposed isolation from the art world producing works seen only by intimates. Stokes was born in Tacoma, Washington. He lived and worked in the Northwest until the early 1990s, when he settled in Manhattan, New York City.