Christopher M. Stephens

A graduate of James Madison University (JMU), with a Master of Fine Arts in Painting, Chris exhibits a strong, bold use of color and light. His oils of the Virginia countryside portray dramatic vistas, and his frames become part of the painting. Currently an instructor in Art at James Madison University and Lord Fairfax Community College, Chris immerses himself in his medium. He has been exhibiting his work since l984.

"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. 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. Color is all I have 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."

He has a BFA from UNC-Greensboro and an MFA from James Madison University. I show in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Charlotte, North Carolina and in Washington and Sperryville, Virginia.