Penzance-born, the artist began to study art at the Penzance School of Art aged fourteen, and then continued at the Royal College of Art. 

He was living with his widowed father at 2 Regent's Terrace, Penzance, in 1891, and gave this as his sending-in address in 1893. In 1895 he exhibited in the Opening Exhibition of NAG (although a newspaper account misspells his surname as Evo).

In 1898 he married Sophie Frederica Martin (b.1872) in Kensington. At the 1901 Census they lived at Cranbrook Road, Chiswick, with their daughter Ursula Eva, aged 1, and Charles' brother Herbert Eva (aged 17).

Charles Eva became Acting Principal of the Hammersmith School of Arts & Crafts, and subsequently Headmaster of the London County Council School of Art, Hackney. He was an Associate of the Royal College of Art, and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

He died at age 78 on 21 July 1945 in Sherborne, Dorset.