Charles Stoneham first worked as a matte painter at Pinewood Studios -
he was employed in the general stores there and painted as a hobby.
Cliff Culley, the in-house matte painter at the studio saw Charles'
work and gave him a job at middle 60s. Cliff was a very good painter,
particularly of fine detail, and he trained Charles in the finer points
of matte painting.
When Pinewood closed down its optical/matte painting department in the
early 70s, Charles left his painting job and later moved to Bude, in
Cornwall. It was at early 80s on "Dark Crystal" that Roy Field asked
him to come back do some matte painting work. After that, he worked on
other films like "A Christmas Carol" . On the projects involving Roy
Field (who also used to work with Cliff Culley) Charles was usually
employed by the production company making the film, but also carried
out some work for Optical Film Effects and Field Films.