When we decided to do an exhibit celebrating the effects of light on canvas, we turned to the most luminous artist we knew and asked him to paint what he felt and saw in the beautiful surroundings of his native Virginia.Inspired by the sweeping skyscapes, waterscapes and soft land of the Mid-Atlantic, Christopher Burch paints magnificent oils that perfectly capture nature’s illumination.
The Gate, SOLD
Vermilion Sky
Breaking Veil
Abiding Sky, SOLD
Tangerine
The Great Valley
Artist's Biography
Christopher Burch, who describes himself as “being solidly in the mainstream of self-taught artists”, is intrigued by flat, reflective waters and expansive, cloud-filled skies.He prefers to start with simple, compositional exercises in charcoal and pencil that allow him to engage the landscape through artistic expression.As the painting develops, the paint becomes the earth, sky, light and water.“The experience of bringing to life a sense of vast space on a flat surface is one of those indescribable experiences where you may find yourself in a nearly perfect space,“ he says.
We were immediately taken with Burch’s majestic inspirations and the unmistakable luminosity that radiates from his work.We love the contrast of the sweeping, moody skies and the hyper realist rendition of the land and sea, where the artist has tended to every detail.The way the light plays on the clouds and land has a completely natural quality to it, but is also a little mysterious.Although his subjects are majestic in size, they are warm, approachable and soothing to view.Some of Burch’s most common regional subjects are natural scenes of Ocracoke Island, Jamestown, Christianburg and the waters of Virginia and North Carolina.
Burch's paintings have an exciting play of energy between the light and focal points. From a distance, the eye is tricked into thinking that the landscape is painted in minute detail, somewhat reminiscent of 18th and 19th classical landscapes. But as you are drawn into the painting, you'll see that the technique is actually impressionistic, and the level of detail is an illusion. This keeps the painting alive and interesting, with an energy between what is lit and what is not, and what is in focus and what is just an illusion. On the one hand, these paintings are soothing; on the other hand, they are very much alive.
We are thrilled to introduce a vast new body of work by this talented artist whose perfectionism and professionalism are embodied in every painting, down to the quality of the paints he uses and the hand cut and stretched canvas.
Burch, whose work is in several public collections and institutions, lives in the mid-Atlantic region.
