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“With the arrival of the nineties, I found myself harmonising my work and private life for the first time,” Chris says. “I endured a lot in the eighties and was now stronger, having acquired a lot of life experiences, some of which was bound to surface in my work.
“This became a time of great enjoyment for me. I found myself single again and there was no shortage of friends to go out with and enjoy the then blossoming London alternative club scene. The goth and fetish movements were at their best and most vibrant. There was a fantastic array of young beautiful people dressed in the most exotic and imaginative ways possible. A real ‘zoo’ of wonderful weirdoes creating an artist’s paradise of influences. As if this was not enough, the rave scene was also happening, and it was almost like going back to the sixties again. I was loving it all! Most influential were the beautiful and wonderful women I ran into who quickly became my friends. (I always felt more comfortable in women’s company than around loads of guys, having grown up in an all female household.) Before long these women were appearing in my paintings. Using models was quite a novelty for me, and it became an important part of my creative process, helping me to create powerful female images with a greater depth and beauty.”
Though Chris continues to accept commercial commissions, his artistic eye has turned to other areas. In 1993 he painted ‘The Dark Angel’, an experiment done on heavy canvas that displayed a looser, more painted style. For Chris, the experience was liberating. Now he is dedicated to creating more of the same — art done not for commission but for himself, for his own personal satisfaction, contributing to his evolution from illustrator to artist. Symbolism is the best way Chris can define his new style. He is also painting in oils now, an aim he had previously mentioned in Sirens.
“I am constantly on the move, creatively,” Chris emphasises. “I have learned to use all kinds of mediums and materials in my work, from airbrushing with inks and acrylics to watercolour and gouache, to oils. I have even painted with fabric dyes.
I have painted on commercial art boards of all sorts, I have painted on hardboard (maisonite), on hand-made papers of assorted colours and textures, and on all kinds of stretched canvases and linens. “The reasons for this are obvious.
My pictures vary so much in subject matter, just as much as my techniques and materials do, from slick graphic works to figurative dragons and landscapes. Painting technique and skill is important - with some images demanding very tight detail on a smooth base, some looser, others heavier with a more textured base - but technique alone is not enough to create good work.
Most importantly the picture has to be pleasing to the eye, it has to look great. If it also makes one think, then all the better. The other reason is that I would simply be bored to tears painting the same way all the time, year after year. To me, being a painter is all about learning. I like to think that I’ve learned a little more every time I finish a picture. There’s so much to learn, I could live ten lifetimes and not learn it all!”
Chris’s approach to his work is summed up by a motto which is written on his drawing board: “Always striving for that unobtainable perfection, that’s what it’s all about.”
