Chris HartsfielD: painter

Artist Statement

What I make: Paintings. I paint with acrylic on stretched canvas. My images and genres run the gamut of styles and subject manner. I jump from realism, to abstract pieces, to representational, to etherial, to funny, or lively, moody or sometimes just messy. Why I paint: I believe that those of us who do what we do are have something special. We look at things around us differently, listen to the rhymes and sounds that move us, or read words that inspire us. We study shapes, designs, patterns, the effect of light, and reflections. I paint because I love the whole process, planning, researching, drawing, smearing paint, framing, promotion, sharing my finished pieces, and so much more. I love admiring the work of other creative people, painters, photographers, sculptors, jewelers, writers, musicians, the lists goes on and on. How I make it: Each canvas is prepped. I use frog tape to mask out the outer edges of each canvas. Then, I skim a coat of light molding paste over the exposed canvas area to create a textural surface to paint on. For the realism works I use all the tools that are available, cameras for recording references, and a projector to speed up the drawing process. The abstract and abstract landscape are created without any reference material. Usually the abstract pieces are in series, 2 pieces, 4 pieces and sometimes 6 pieces per series.