about the artist

Chris Cart

American artist—with a bit of Mexico thrown in.

"Paint is such a fabulous medium. I love the look and feel of paint. And the idea that you can smudge some of this around on a panel and create a picture is just magic--even when I know how to do it.

Painting, for me, is telling stories in pigment."

Our Artist has over 1800 hours invested in this project, so far, with hours of research, drawing and painting studies to see how things should look, design time and actual paint-on-canvas time.

Recently I collaborated with another mural artist, John Gable for a two mural project for a venue in Washington D.C.

Another public commission was a new painting for the New Lithgow Library in Augusta, Maine, Stories from the Mezzanine.

In 2016 I completed a new 21 foot mural for Bath, Maine.  The theme is the “Spirit of Bath” which, of course, wraps around the history of shipbuilding in this City of Ships.

In 2015 I finished a mural for the new Capital Judicial Center in Maine’s capital at Augusta.  This 14 x 40-foot mural called Kennebec is a maritime history of the Kennebec River with people, ships, history…lots of drama.  Painting doesn’t get any better.

Over the years I have created many murals.   Working big is having the sky for your canvas.  However, I have also worked very small, illustrating over 30 books and book covers, painting miniatures, carving block prints, drawing etchings and monotypes.  I love making things.

As a young ‘starving artist’, I started out as a sculptor in Guadalajara, Mexico, carving masks, and modeling figures in clay.  But I found the lure of the brush too much to resist.  And the best advice given to me back then by an old artist was, “Draw, draw, draw.”  I have never stopped.

With a pencil or brush in hand I can create worlds within the canvas frame.  The figures are my players and the canvas my stage.   However, I am no fantasy artist.   Reality creates the spark.  My eyes open, I find things that need to be in my paintings.

I have exhibited in galleries and exhibitions in Maine, Seattle and New York City.  As an illustrator I have worked for Hearst Books, William Morrow, Greenwillow Books, Random House and DownEast Books of Maine.  And creating sets and playbills for theater is a thrill.

the-museBorn in Maine, I can claim that much coveted ‘native’ status but in truth I lived away a lot.  My bones are solid New England stock but my blood carries the dusts of years in Mexico…and a bit of rust from the Pacific Northwest as well.

Back in my bohemian days I sold paintings at street shows and at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Today I enjoy the luxury of having my work in a great gallery, but there is an excitement, a rawness to selling art on the street.

I currently live with my wife and fellow painter, Jen Greta Cart, in Hallowell, Maine.

See more of Cart's artwork

40 years of painting

Chris Cart has more that a dozen murals in Maine and out of state. He has been painting murals since 2008. You can see his other murals here as well as many of his oil and watercolor paintings.

ChristopherCart.com