Chris Jehn

Poured Acrylic Demo March 10, 2010

I am primarily a self taught artist. I have always felt creative. I worked my way through college by teaching crafts at an arts and crafts store, everything from embroidery and macramé to tole painting and pottery. It wasn’t until I was going through a painful period in my life that I tried water color painting by taking a class at a local community college. At first it was quite a frustrating experience, watercolor is a difficult medium. I persevered and found another instructor; Jane Jones, that was able to help me progress. Since then I’ve moved on to experimenting with other media especially acrylics and collage. It’s so wonderful to be an artist now when we have access to new and wonderful types of paint and mediums, I love getting a new catalog in the mail so I can see what to experiment with next.

I love intense color, and generally follow Ibsen’s principals of color composition. Currently I primarily do collage type work using acrylic and permanent inks on a paper or canvas base with masa rice paper. Once the base painting is dry I use acrylics to pull an image out or enhance the abstract design. Sometimes I have an objective in mind when I start; usually something from nature like a field of flowers or trees, other times an image emerges, or it may remain an abstract. Once I framed an abstract painting and placed it in a show, I later looked at it and realized that painting was a portrait of a face. I took it out of the frame and enhance the face. Like most artists it’s hard for me to know when to stop working on a piece.

I have taken numerous workshops from other practicing artists. I find that being with a group of other artists creates a synergy that inspires me to keep painting. I also enjoy traveling to scenic areas of the world. Every place I’ve been has a creative energy all its own. One of the main reasons I moved to Colorado is because almost everywhere you look there is something wonderful to see.