Chris Stephens @ NIH

Chris Stephens
July 3rd 2009 - August 28, 2009

I paint from life, and I try to keep the process direct and uncluttered by anxiety or technical issues. I try to make individual marks, each based on something seen. As I feel my way into the subject, I look for some organizing structure discovered new with each painting, like parallel diagonals or repeating shapes or edges of forms intersecting at right angles. Ideally, I want my paintings to simply be an accumulation of marks within a personal compositional structure.
Color and paint seem to have their own magic, which I try to harness. I want color to sing, and paint to dance. I use color to convey the feeling of the experience, and the substance of oil paint is uniquely suited to holding the energy of the marks made in response to life.
I have a BFA from UNC-Greensboro and an MFA from James Madison University. I show in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Charlotte, North Carolina, in Richmond, Washington and Sperryville, Virginia, and in Washington, DC. I have been painting professionally for 25 years. I live and work in Front Royal.