painters
Artist Statement
Christopher A. Thompson
My recent paintings owe much to the Pennsylvania countryside. John Muir, one of our Nation's greatest conservationists, understood Nature's profound beauty as inspiration for the artist: " We find in the fields of Nature no place that is blank or barren; every spot on land or sea is covered with harvests, and these harvests are always ripe and ready to be gathered and no toiler is ever underpaid." (John Muir)
Many of my paintings are 'expressions' of the woodlands, streams, pastures and rolling hills that characterize the Piedmont region that stretches from Maine all the way to Georgia. Every day I am always on the lookout for a color or horizon to speak to me and sometimes they do. Many times, I accidentally stumble into some wonderful place that stirs something inside me. The work sometimes begins from a graphic thumbnail sketch or digital photograph. I bring these images to my studio and work our the size and the medium.
These 'landscape expressions' paintings begin in front of the canvas in the studio. The act of painting draws out these expressions only, of course, if my muse is cooperating that day. Many of these paintings are less representational and show more of an abstract style. The abstract qualities in the paintings include bolder brush strokes, palette knife swathes, paint hues and impastos and may at times weigh more heavily on the actual physical play of paint on canvas than a straight contour rendering of the object.....
Christopher A. Thompson has been an artist all of his life and has exhibited widely in the United States. Recent painting awards include the Wayne At Center's Quita Broadhead Award and the Award of Excellence at the Squirrel Gallery. At eighteen years of age, Chris won the National Scholastic Gold Medal in painting and has received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Along with a teaching assistanceship, Chris was a warded a Ford Foundation Fellowship during his graduate studies.