Based in San Diego, CA
Christopher Harvey is a painter of the moment, whose kinetic, color-drenched landscapes and portraits are like emotional dispatches from a teeming world that seems incapable of standing still and impossible to capture. Yet capture it he does, owing to a style that privileges immediacy over realism, somehow enabling him to transform fleeting impressions into concrete, memorable works of art.
Using acrylics on canvas or wood, Christopher's densely textured paintings are made by layering thick brush strokes and punctuated with emphatic gestural touches (which are especially vivid in the faces of his many animal pictures).
In Christopher's work, spontaneity and chance are crucial elements, such as the misplaced or unintended lines and marks he routinely leaves in his paintings.
"Imperfections are key to my art," says Christopher, "on a purely visually level-sometimes a 'mistake' just looks better than what I had intended. Also, imperfections help to assert the work's underlying humanity, showing that behind each piece there's a fallible individual, using his imperfect skills to illuminate his ideas and share them with the world."
Imperfect art reflects its imperfect creator, and also illustrates the imperfect nature of humanity; not unlike how imperfect images are often more true to life and evoke reality more powerfully than something pristine like a photo.
Christopher has been making art for most of his life. Starting well before his formal training as an artist began. He has a B.F.A. from University of Connecticut and an M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He also spent several years as an art educator, teaching art in the Connecticut public school system and serving as an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven.
Christopher's paintings feel alive and capture the essence of his subjects, owing to the way he works: in the moment, embracing chance every step of the way, and wholly committed to depicting the truth, above any pre-existing formula or rigid compositional standard.
"What's most important to me in painting is the emotional truth-that's what allows me to get to the heart of whatever I'm seeing." - Christopher Harvey
