Thanks to Batman and Robin, I started drawing when I was six.
From there, I drew everything or anything that was my biggest craze at the time: From airplanes to astronauts; trains to musicians. If it was a person I was drawing, I was determined to make sure the likeness was exact. I learned by trial and error that a likeness is more than just an exact replica of the person. You have to capture the personality – what’s behind the eyes. You can put a piece of tracing paper down over a photo for example, and not get it. I was never happy if I didn’t get it. So the fact I idolized a lot of major historical and cultural figures actually helped me learn to draw.
By the early 1980’s I was on my own living in Tucson and working the standard 8-5 job which turned out to be very beneficial to an art career I wouldn’t start until 2000. For about 20 years, I seldom did anything with art unless it was specifically for my job. My job involved meeting a lot of the best sporting dogs and trainers in the country. By the end of the 1990’s I was heading to Thomasville, GA on a regular basis. It was dog-central. I became friends with someone who owned a plantation there, and her black labs that were her best friends – and her pointers – became my prime subject material. Many of the dogs and outdoor scenes that are in my paintings are from South Georgia.
My main job is to capture the personality of dogs, horses and their owners in watercolor, graphite or oil. I painted almost every national champion and national amateur retriever champion from 2000 – 2013. I have paintings that are part of the permanent collection of the National Bird Dog Museum in Grand Junction, Tennessee, and in private collections.
I am a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists.
In 2008, one of my paintings of Patton – a National Retriever Champion – appeared on Ducks Unlimited t-shirts and people would call me to order. Then I started thinking about an idea to feature not only the t-shirts, but artwork from fellow nationally acclaimed artists I exhibited with. I remembered many of the plantation houses I visited often in South Georgia. I thought, wouldn’t it be neat to have a web site filled with all kinds of high-quality custom art and related art-related merchandise on one site. Sort of like walking into a very nice plantation house or art gallery.
For a few years, Sporting Artisans was a retail site where you could but lots of great art. Today it is not a retail site, but more of a gallery that simply shows off artwork and products I like. Many of the very talented artists and artisans have become good friends.
This web site features the work I’ve been doing over the last 25 years.
Thanks for stopping by.
Chris Chantland