Christopher's Paintings

Show Time

2012-01-28T10:43:00.001-08:00

Come out and see my show, February 4 and 5, 2012, here in Exclusive Collections gallery San Diego--at the Seaport Village location.
You'll be treated to a first-time look at a menu of new works I'm very proud of, presented in four courses and paired with the culinary temptations of Mandy
Braidik.
And did I mention there'd be wine?

Cheers!
Christopher

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Summer Days

2011-07-12T13:34:00.001-07:00

It looks like the NFL lockout may be over in a week or so, my fingers are crossed.
In more personal news, Friday I'll be headed to the Marine Room in La Jolla to sketch and photo Chef Bernard Guillas and Chef Ron Oliver (look for their award-winning cookbook, "Flying Knives: Two Chefs, One World" on www.twochefsoneworld.com or ask for a signed copy at the restaurant).
Also I'll be painting live at Exclusive Collections Gallery in Seaport Village Saturday and Sunday (July 16 and 17) and at Gaslamp Gallery for Local's Night the following Wednesday.
Cheers!

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Getting ready for Atlanta show

2011-04-29T17:27:00.001-07:00

Watch out for Painter of Chefs, arriving in Atlanta at Vinings Gallery the first weekend of June. Hide your food and wine!! ;)

Also exciting news, I've been invited by two very prominent chefs, Charlie Trotter and Francois Payard, to travel to their kitchens and immortalize them in my paintings--great fun!!

Cheers!

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2011-02-14T12:11:00.001-08:00

On Valentine's day my girlfriend and I sculpted this mermaid from wet sand at Coronado beach. Hard to tell from the photo, but the mermaid was life-sized. So fun!

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Location:Fun at the beach

I have been a very bad blogger (and I'm sorry)

2010-12-23T11:48:00.001-08:00

Haven't posted since I don't know when. I've been fairly busy wrapping up commissions and creating paintings for the gallery.

My next show will be in San Diego in mid-February in partnership with Addison restaurant in Del Mar, where I had an amazing six-course meal (not counting palette cleansers) just the other night. The chef, William Bradley, has won numerous awards for his precision and technical brilliance, and the Sommelier I worked with, Jesse Rodriguez, in addition to other honors, worked with Thomas Keller of the French Laundry (who could easily be considered the John Singer Sargent of the culinary world, in short, the artist's artist).

For details about the show, please see www.ecgallery.com

Anyway, Merry Christmas all--and here is my newest painting. :-)

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A funny thing happened

2010-10-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

I was at an art event a little while back, doing some live painting at our gallery booth. James, my publisher, had set up a sort of temporary gallery, a beautiful presentation with framed art on black walls.

So I see a nicely dressed lady looking at my art, and I overhear her say, "This person is copying another artist."

Thinking it was an odd coincidence, I politely asked her whose work mine resembled so closely. And after she described the art and where she'd seen it, I knew that it was actually my work she meant! She was very happy when I explained and introduced myself.

She was very pleasant, but I thought it was hilarious that it had been myself I was ripping off. :)

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A little tease...

2010-09-30T11:33:00.001-07:00

Here's something you might see in a little while... A little wine, anyone? ;)
In related news, the date for my Winemaker Series unveiling is set, Thurs Nov 18th. See www.ecgallery.com for more details.
Also that week I'll be featured as the Celebrity Artist for San Diego Wine and Food Festival. So, very excited about that. :)
Further information on www.worldofwineevents.com

Cheers!

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Hello interweb!

2010-05-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy and fun opening to the year. I had three shows back to back, EC Gallery in San Diego for February, April in Atlanta, Georgia with Vinings gallery and I just got back from Portland, Oregon and my show with Shaffer Gallery. Now it's time to buckle down and go to work on commissions. Then I'll be jamming on the new body of work celebrating California's legendary wine-makers.
Here are two paintings from recent shows...

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Getting excited about my upcoming show in San Diego

2010-01-30T23:12:00.001-08:00

Hi, I have to put something up about my upcoming show with EC Gallery in San Diego. I'm teaming up with a great chef from Del Mar's Kitchen 1540 restaurant on Friday, Feb 25 to prepare a 4 course dinner for lovers of fine art and fine food. The theme is emotions of the heart, and each of Chef McCabe's dishes will express an emotion, to be paired with an original painting of mine. Tickets will be only $85 and you can get a reservation either through EC Gallery (www.ecgallery.com) or through Kitchen 1540 (L'auberge Hotel, Del Mar).
Then Saturday I'll have an exhibit at EC Gallery, Gaslamp on 5th and Market. Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Christopher

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Sketches of my cat

2010-01-19T21:17:00.001-08:00

I pay the rent, but I think she believes she's the one in charge.

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Paradise

2010-01-09T18:38:00.001-08:00

I never thought painting would take me somewhere so beautiful. Hawaii is truly amazing, better than I expected by a long shot!
I'm here to meet a great chef, Chef Etheridge, voted best chef in Maui.
:)

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Lady chefs!

2009-11-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

Got to show some respect for the amazing lady chefs out there. : )
Also I'm excited about the San Diego Food and Wine Festival coming up next week. My good friend Michael Flohr will be the celebrity artist.

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Events coming up

2009-10-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've been huddled in the painting cave for a little while now, but soon I'll emerge into the warm sunlight of the public's affection.

Tonight (which I know is way too short of a notice for anyone to attend, but there you have it) I'll be participating in the 5th Annual Chef Showdown, San Diego's version of Iron Chef. I'm not exactly sure what to expect, so perhaps I'll write a report afterwards...

In November there are two events in San Diego. One is my Cooking Class and Wine Tasting (I won't be teaching how to cook, there will be a professional chef teaching. Which will be very fun.) My work will be there, and I'll be painting, mixing and mingling. :)
The dates are
November 13 at the Historic Gaslamp Gallery in San Diego, from 6-9 pm and
November 14 at the Fashion Valley Gallery, from 6-9 pm.

For further details and how to sign up, visit the gallery website at www.ecgallery.com .

Also in November, the 3rd Annual Miniature show, featuring the work of between 12 and 20 different artists, many of national or international prominence, and all in a tidy and compact (and affordable) size.
This will happen on November 6th, 7th and 8th at Exclusive Collections Gallery, in Seaport Village.

That's all for now,
Christopher

I'm having a show soon in San Diego!

2009-07-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'm having an art show next weekend.

An evening of Fine Art, Fine Food, and Fine Wine.
The VIP artist reception and unveiling will be
Friday, July 17 at 6pm to 9pm
at Exclusive Collections Gallery, Fashion Valley Mall
(2nd Floor near Neiman Marcus)

At 7:30pm Friday night there will be an awards ceremony to present the
Silver Fork Award, which honors the top chefs and restaurants throughout San Diego.

Special Wine Tasting and Culinary Delights provided
by 2009 Silver Fork Award-Winning Restaurants.

RSVP to pr@ecgallery.com

The show will continue
Saturday, July 18 from 4pm to 8pm
and Sunday, July 19 from 12pm to 5pm.
at Exclusive Collections Gallery, Fashion Valley Mall
(2nd Floor near Neiman Marcus)
7007 Friars Rd. San Diego Ca 92108
800-599-7111

www.ecgallery.com
www.chrismangum.com

Last month's show

2009-06-24T23:46:00.001-07:00

Hello, last month I had a show in Atlanta, Georgia. It was at Vinings Gallery, owned by the very excellent Gary Handler and his friend Dinard (who is also very excellent). The show went very well. :) I partnered with a great chef, Kevin Rathbun (who has appeared on television numerous times, but perhaps most notably on Iron Chef show on Food Network, with Bobby Flay). He prepared an amazing meal for our collectors, which I also had the pleasure of sampling. His cooking style is a blend of contemporary American and French, but there is a strong Southern flair, which I loved. Fried eggplant with powdered sugar, dipped in tabasco sauce. Need I say more?
These are some of the paintings from the show.
Oh, yeah, and-- Eat more pie. (that's one of chef Kevin's sayings. I stole it, just now.)

Sweet, sweet painting, you temptress.

2009-04-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some paintings which were inspired by a restaurant in NY, called Cafe Boulud. It is a 4-star restaurant, and the executive chef is a very cool guy named Gavin Kyssen. He treated me to one of the finest meals I've ever had in my life, French-influenced--it tasted like sheer romanticism, like poetry itself. (And by poetry I mean Keats, Byron and Shelley, the type of verse that you never forget, that changes your life. This is the kind of food that Gavin cooks.)
Cheers!

Cold as Ice!

2009-04-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's how it was when we went to New York at the end of February for ArtExpo. This photo was taken in Central Park: I'm the skinny, shivering guy to the left, and the cheerful gent to my left is my good friend Michael Flohr.
Our flight home was cancelled due to the Nordic weather conditions, which was a good thing for Michael and I, since we used our extra two days to gather photos of snowy landscapes, New York street scenes, and maybe the odd bar or two.
Just before we asked a Brazilian tourist to take this photo, we had been treated to a subway ride, during which a homeless gentleman had asked the passengers if he might smoke. Receiving no answer, he lit up, and while smoking began a long explanation to a fellow-traveler about his philosophy of life, which summed up, amounted to this: he himself was a death-dealing Irish murderer, veteran of the Vietnam War, who knew something about courtesy that most people can never know, since he asked first before he lit his cigarette.
Ah, New York.

I've discovered this amazing new technology...

2009-03-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

It involves this substance called "graphite". You apply it to another substance, which I like to call "paper." The chemistry is very complicated--I could explain how it works, but I'm afraid somebody may use my invention for Evil. Witness the stunning results above!
(A sketch for a future commission.)

Going back to New York!

2009-02-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning I hop on a plane and go to New York for ArtExpo New York, one of the largest art events in the country (I'm told). So, I'm busy busy packing. But I thought I'd take a few minutes to post some of the paintings from the show in January with Exclusive Collections Gallery and Jsix Restaurant in San Diego.
Cheers!

I'm having a show in about two weeks...

2009-01-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

The show is a collaboration between myself and the head chef of JSix restaurant here in San Diego, chef Christian Graves. There will be a dinner and an unveiling of a painting which is paired with each course of the meal. Afterwards, the exhibition will happen. It's all happening at Solamar Hotel, in the Solstice Ballroom, from 6 to 9 pm on January the 24th. For any other details I may have forgotten, see the Exclusive Collections gallery website at
www.ecgallery.com .
Cheers!
-Chris

The painting above is a watercolor, with a little goauche added for some of the highlights. A little different for me, since I usually work in oil, but it was really fun.

Happy gobble-gobble day!

2008-11-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

I had a very nice time. We went to a friend's place, had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, all that good stuff. Then we played Trivial Pursuit in teams. Unfortunately, it turned out that I'm really stupid. I couldn't answer any of the questions, and my team lost. Ignonimously. (If I mis-spelled that, chalk it up to my newly discovered idiocy.) Also, here's some paintings I finished in the last month or so.

Minis!

2008-11-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the second annual miniature show at Exclusive Collections gallery here in San Diego. The show went really well, and with twelve artists participating, there was lots of beautiful artwork.
The paintings are all about 12 inches wide or smaller, which, while not at all "postage stamp" sized, is still much smaller than most of us usually paint.
Here was my contribution of smaller culinary paintings. Cheers!

Vegas, baby!

2008-10-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

left to right: artist Michael Flohr, Catherine Wolf, Gloria Lee, Tiffany Mendenhall, Me in the back, Ruthanne Thorn (my publisher) and little Isabella, artist Henry Ascencio, James Thorn, and Ruthie.

ArtExpo Las Vegas is a big convention that happens every year. Lots of galleries and clients come, and there's booths set up with a lot of art. Generally, the expo seemed smaller than last year, but I think it went well for us. We're working on developing relationships with a couple of new galleries. I'm told that the New York ArtExp is the really big one.

This is our crew from this September. The photo was taken in front of Henry Ascencio's section.

ye olde influences

2008-09-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a selection of some of my favorite artists, who probably have influenced my work in one way or another:

N.C. Wyeth.
(If I had to have a favorite artist, it would probably be him.)

James McNeill Whistler.

Thomas Dewing.

Robert Rauschenburg.

Alphonse Mucha.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

John William Waterhouse.

Jasper Johns.

(It may not seem to fit with some of the other artists, but I've always liked him.)

Howard Pyle.

Winslow Homer.

Harvey Dunn.

Dean Cornwell.

Claude Monet.

Mary Cassat

Adolphe William Bougereau

Edgar Degas

John Singer Sargent

Eat healthy, my friend.

2008-09-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Fresh doughnuts!

2008-07-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Still hot from the oven. Don't burn your hands!*

*I'm referring to the paintings as doughnuts. The chefs are not actually cooking doughnuts. **

**Not that there's anything wrong with doughnuts. I like doughnuts as much as the next guy. Maybe more than him, depending how he feels about them.

Follow-up is awesome!

2008-07-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished painting from the preliminary sketches in the last post. Actual painting time was maybe a week or two, but I was working on other projects at the same time, so it took a bit longer in the "real" world time.

A few sketches for my next painting

2008-06-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be working on a painting of the J-Six restaurant here in downtown San Diego. I wasn't sure what kind of composition I wanted, so I did these sketches to figure it out. I also have some more paintings completed of restaurants and chefs, will post those as soon as I have time.

Fond Remembrance

2008-05-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

(photo borrowed from Academy of Art University Website)

Unfortunately, one of my favorite teachers, Barbara Bradley, has passed away. She'll be missed, not only by me, but by hundreds of other students she has taught in her long career.

A lot of what I know about drawing, I learned from her, either directly or indirectly. Most of my other drawing teachers in art school were former students of hers (Chuck Pyle, Bill Sanchez, and Carol Nunnelly, to name a few). The Illustration department at my school was founded by her, and she was its first director. And along with the great artists of the past that I studied during school, Degas and Sargent and Rembrandt and all of those guys, I had equal enthusiasm for artists who had studied with Barbara in the past, whose drawings she would show us with great pride. These were artists like Paul Mica, Francis Livingston, David Mar, Val Mina, Chuck Pyle and Kazuhiko Sano. They may not be famous yet, but I suspect one day they will be. And the point is, they all studied under her.

Barbara was very excited by the beautiful draughtsmanship and powerful compositions of the golden age illustrators, and her excitement had a tendency to rub off on her students. And if she was sometimes a little, uh, honest, in her criticisms--well, the sting of those gentle rebukes tended to inspire us toward great improvements in our drawings. Like all of her students, I think a little piece of Barbara, the memory of her words and the enthusiasm and humor she shared, will always be with me.

For more information about Barbara's career and work, I recommend you visit the memorial web page posted by her friends and former students, www.thankyoubarbarabradley.com .

Here's to you, Barbara.

My new series

2008-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is my new series, showing in a couple of galleries here and there. I've been focusing on chefs and restaurants, and the response seems to be pretty good.
I'll probably take a break from still life for a little while. It seems like I get kinda bummed if I don't paint the human figure for any length of time.

It's not how big it is...

2007-11-01T09:19:00.001-07:00

These are some of the new works I've been doing for the San Diego gallery (and others).
They're meant to reference food, and hint at its role in our culture of creating a sense of home and security in us. So, a bit happier than some of my other work probably. :)
They're all small, mostly 8" by 8" or thereabouts.

There's also a related series of sauce and condiment bottles which I'll post in the not too distant future.

Sorry, Blog

2007-05-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

I know I've been neglecting you. I'll try harder in the future.

Here are some of the paintings I've been doing lately. Maybe that'll make you feel better.

Here's a bar scene

2007-01-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

While I painted this, I was smoking a cigarette and looking really cool. You should have seen it. It was amazing.

(All lies. I don't smoke, I'm never cool, and nothing is amazing. Look it up, amazing's not even in the dictionary*.)

*Another lie. I haven't checked, but it's probably there.

Wow, has it been two months already?

2006-12-31T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well, here are a couple of pieces I've been working on since I've been down here in San Diego.

Well, this year's in the bag now. I figure I'll close the year with an annoyingly meaningless platitude. (You can quote me if you like.)

"That's just the way life goes, I guess."

Don't be deceived...

2006-10-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

Even though I finished four paintings this month, that doesn't mean I can paint four paintings in a month. Two of them, the black and whites, I've been working on for like the last six months off and on.

Is stealing bad?

2006-09-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

I used to think that any artist who didn't paint or draw but used collage instead was just a lazy bum. But that was before I tried it myself.
Now I have to ask, is stealing wrong? It seems like maybe I'm a hypocrite, because I generally don't think artists should take from other artists, and yet I really feel like I'm learning something from the collage pieces I'm working on.
I haven't shown the work to any galleries yet, partly because I'm not sure how I feel about it, and partly because I'm not sure if it's fully developed.
It's such a struggle to break through and try and do something I haven't done before. (and maybe that other people haven't seen a million times before, too.)Some of these collage pieces may ultimately be a dead end, but hopefully I'll learn something I can use in future work.

Hello, happy people! Who's happy today? That's right-- you are!

2006-08-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, that's a pretty random title. I apologize if my nonsensical title bothers you at all.
I haven't been doing a lot lately, but there's always time for sketching, right?

what does an artist do on vacation? he paints.

2006-07-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week in San Diego with my friend Mike, which was pretty fun. Oh, the adventures we had! But I digress (or do I?). Anyway, while I was there, I painted these three still-lifes.

I used to want to be a fantasy illustrator, and I have the pictures to prove it!

2006-07-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Evil goblin.

A merchant and his bodyguard. From an unpublished Role-playing game novel/manual entitled "Wastelands".

Evil queen's throne room.

A blown up detail shot of the same piece.

The undead army attack a city. From "Wastelands" project.

A villager is attacked by zombie dogs. From "Wastelands" project.

Soldiers in the army of the dead. From "Wastelands" project.

Random fairy illustration.

more random fairies.

These are some illustrations I did when I was in school (and when I still thought I was going to become the next N.C. Wyeth)

2006-07-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

Illustration for the story "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

It may not be obvious, but this is Ichabod Crane running for his life from the Headless Horseman in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

Another illustration of "Treasure Island."

An illustration from one of the Hornblower novels by C.S. Forester. I think it was "Hornblower and the Atropos" but I'm not sure now.

Dinosaurs and other cool stuff

2006-07-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

This is an unfinished piece I'm still working on. I don't know why, but I've been interested in dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters lately. I even had a dream a little while back where I was showing some friends these great dinosaur paintings I had done. They were way better than I can paint in real life.
This one's not from my dream, but it is a saber-toothed tiger's skull I saw at the museum, so that's kinda cool, right? It's about five feet long by three feet wide, painted on strips of canvas stapled to a piece of plywood.

This is a figure I drew and painted out of my imagination. So if it sucks, then that's why.

I had this totally original idea. What if I just go out and paint the landscape around me, then call it art? Everybody's going to be simply flabbergasted when they see this new idea!

This is a bar in San Francisco, the Starlite Room. Kind of an older crowd, but a really cool view. I recommend it for getting drunk in at least once.

This one's an actual painting going to an actual gallery where hopefully an actual person will want to buy it. (They don't have to use actual money though, I'd take monopoly money at this point.) Double parentheses. That last part was a joke. I really do need real money.

Pretty bird

2006-07-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of goauche landscapes I did a year or two ago.

I have a bird (who I hate) and whenever he wants some attention from you, he squawks, "Pretty bird", which is not actually an observation, but a command. He's telling you what you have to say back to him. He's ordering you to cater to his vanity.
I suppose, in a sense, a blog is the same basic idea.
So, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird. (Now you say it back.)
-Chris

Boy, a guy sure can work up a sweat writing a blog.

2006-07-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

These are some color studies I did for the Project Codenamed Chunk. (This was a project involving several artists where we had originally planned to make our own animated film. We never finished the project, so maybe we bit off more than we could chew. Sure has been fun, though.)
Also, regarding the post titled "My Crazy Dog", I ended up seeing Superman Returns. I guess it was pretty cool, but you'd probably really have to be into Superman to like it. (note the amazing, previously unrevealed ability to review movies--this guy is an artist but oh so much more! What other revelations will arise in the course of this blog? Only the dedicated reader will find out...)

You can trust me, really.

2006-06-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Remember the other day I said I was going to go out and paint a landscape. Well, there it is. I came through. See, my word really means something to me. When I make a promise, I keep it (sometimes).
The other piece is a sketch I did of my cat. He's black with white socks and a white chest, which always makes it look to me like he's dressed for a wedding (or a funeral, if that suits you better.)
-Chris

I like to think one day a crackpot inventor will make a jetpack that works.

2006-06-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I did for a character I made up. He's kind of a hick inventor who made his own jetpack and dragged all his neighbors out to see him try it out. No particular context other than that, but a pretty fun piece to play around with.

Oh, yeah, here's another picture.

2006-06-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Kind of an older piece I did, maybe a couple of years ago. It's from Robin Hood, the part of the story where he meets Little John. After Little John pounds him to jelly, Robin asks him to join his gang, which I always thought was real cool of him.

My Crazy Dog

2006-06-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is my nutty little dog, Firefly. She's a toy Pomeranian, and completely psycho. She thinks she's really big and tough, and every time somebody approaches the house, she barks madly to let them know how badly she'll hurt them if they try to invade. But the thing is, she's only a little bit bigger than my hand.
Another odd habit of hers is that if you pick her up, she'll try to lick the inside of your nostrils. So whenever I hold her I have to turn my head constantly from side to side to defend my nose's virginity.
So, that's Firefly.

In other news,
I'm debating whether I'm going to go see Nacho Libre today or wait till Wednesday and see Superman instead. (I'm pretty broke, so I may not be able to afford both.) I'll let you know how this unfolding drama plays out.

Lazy, sunny days...

2006-06-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

These are some concept pieces I did for a project that was never produced. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I did it.

There are a few shows and birthday parties going on this weekend, so I don't think I'm going to get much painting done. But it's a good thing, because I get a lot of inspiration from hanging with my friends.

Another amazing entry!

2006-06-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to go out and paint a landscape today. This is the landscape I painted last time I went out, which was over a month ago. It's Buchanan Field, an airport not too far from my house.

Now that I have a blog, what do I do with it? Oh, the quandary.

2006-06-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

This is a digital painting I did a while back. It's of King Arthur, when the Lady of the Lake gives him Excalibur.

I must have an addiction to anything that is free. That's why I signed up for this blog, I think.

Today a guy gave me a bunch of flyers telling me to vote for Lyndon LaRouche. I don't know who he is, but he looked really old. (Lyndon, that is.) If there had been a fee, I wouldn't have taken those flyers home to throw into my overworked, underappreciated trash can. But they were free, so I took them.
Oh, I cleaned my room today, that's a pretty major historical event. Like ice ages, you know. They don't come around every day.