Chris began drawing and painting alongside his elder sister. Later he developed an interest in art and artists, and would buy and study books about painters through history. He was very inspired by Bruegel, Rembrandt, Renoir, Dali, and Giorgio de Cirico.
At 14 he moved to an area where there were many local artists, and was inspired by watching them work.
After leaving school he attended a two-year Art and Design course in Mansfield, and greatly developed his understanding of drawing under Trevor Ellis and Dennis Tapsal.
He became fascinated by the use of paint as an abstract medium and took an expressionist approach to his work, “dancing” rather than painting the colour onto large surfaces.
He left Mansfield to study fine Art in Liverpool where he gained his BA (Hons) in 1986. Influences during this period were Frankenthaler, Miro, and Graham Sutherland.
In Liverpool Chris explored the philosophy of Art, as well as explorations in installation, and a multi-media approach using 2d paintings with 3d objects, film, lighting, inflatables, etching, ceramics, and resin constructions.
Over the last ten years he has been a student of Vipassana meditation, and influenced by the “as it is” approach of vipassana has developed a more direct observational style of painting.
Artists Statement
“As a painter, I am influence firstly by the quality of mind generated from meditation, rather than any external sensory reference.
Landscape paintings are a way for me to act from within a state of immersion, and in some way transmits a state of mind.
So far I have painted only British landscapes, and mostly Lincolnshire.
As a British painter, I am interested in a subtle tonal and chromatic range, which is primarily what I see here.
The natural environment is always expressing a state of equilibrium, a dynamic steady state. I feel this is a better pattern for human life. We can learn how to be human, from observing that which is not human.
There is no attempt in these paintings to be original, yet also no attempt to be traditional. I consider them contemporary, as I am contemporary. They are happening now.
As a rule I paint ‘En plein air’ as what can be learned from working from my imagination, or from a second hand source? “
