Chris is an artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores place, memory and the layers that shape our sense of landscape. Drawing remains central, combining precise draftsmanship with spontaneity and chance. Inspired by the Derwent Valley, Chris works across drawing, painting and performance, continually exploring craft, history and environment to create work that invites curiosity and intrigue.
Chris is an artist with a lifelong commitment to making, approaching his practice through curiosity, experimentation and an enduring fascination with drawing. Rather than defining his work through a fixed style, Chris describes himself as a flâneur—travelling hopefully across media, contexts and ideas. Drawing remains central to his practice, combining accurate draftsmanship with gestural spontaneity and an openness to chance. His work is driven by an interest in unpicking the layers that create a sense of place. Since moving to Belper, Chris’s practice has become increasingly rooted in the geography, history and cultural character of the Derwent Valley, where landscape, industry, memory and human activity provide a rich source of inspiration.
Chris’s practice has continually evolved, from an early fascination with the physicality of mark-making and the graphic language of expressionistic Pop Art, through abstraction, post-Dada and conceptual art, to performative approaches to painting and drawing. More recently, he has returned to the craft traditions of fine art, reconsidering the value of skill, materials and making. This is evident in projects such as Instruments of Domestic Ritual, exhibited at the Lace Market Gallery in Nottingham in 2016, which connected meticulously rendered drawings of cooking utensils with the craft of cooking. This developed into a series of drawings of musical instruments, exploring the parallels between drawing and playing music. Chance and accident have also become important elements of Chris’s process, as demonstrated by his drawing of a bazouki, where a spilled coffee became an unexpected and integral part of the finished work.
Chris’s current practice focuses on the River Derwent and the valley through which it flows. Working across drawing, painting, transparent substrates and site-specific performance, he continues to explore how history, geography and human experience combine to create a sense of place. His influences range from his father and Maxwell-Jones to Mark Wallinger, Cornelia Parker, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Long and Claude Monet, while soft pencils, high-quality paper and Payne’s Grey remain essential to his practice. Through his work, Chris aims to create a sense of intrigue, encouraging viewers to look more closely and discover the unexpected layers within familiar places, objects and experiences.