The son of a chicken farmer, Chris Nichols’ fascination with painting birds started out at an early age. Observing the subtle peculiarities within animals that are so apparent in human behavior, his paintings humor the viewer with colorful anecdotes portrayed by our two-, four-, six-, eight-, or no-legged friends. His work seems to be an escape from the city life, dabbling in the oddities of nature and fantasy.
Nathan Cartwright: Chris, so tell me about an artist’s life on a farm?
Chris Nichols: You get up early. But at least you have thirty thousand buddies to keep you company all day. Chickens are hilarious creatures if you sit down and watch them for a few minutes. They are great life drawing models too. So many birds…so little paint.
Nathan Cartwright: Your union between abstract/chaotic structure and figurative work has always fascinated me. Do you have a particular artist that has influenced your imagery?
Chris Nichols: I believe artists like Hokusai, El Lissitsky, Daim, Klimt, and even Piet Mondrian were my early influences to integrate pattern into the backgrounds. The way some of these painters used simple but brilliant compositions to create such a strong image always caught my attention. I love to render, but I also want the viewer to be able to breathe when they view the piece – negative space is great.
Nathan Cartwright: What do you find most similar between birds and humans?
Chris Nichols: Curiosity. People try to conceal it and birds wear it out on their sleeve. If birds weren’t curious they would never fall out of the nest and be able to fly. For humans, curiosity is the source of our progression.
Nathan Cartwright: How do your paintings reflect this? Bringing characters to life is incredible.
Chris Nichols: If you create a character that no one has ever seen before, but plague it with human emotion, such as curiosity, the viewer is then invited into the reality of that painting and can accept the character as something familiar. If you tie up the wings and restrict it, it then becomes just another paint splash on the wall.
Nathan Cartwright: Finally Chris, tell me really, why did the chicken cross the road?
Chris Nichols: Because the sweaty guy inside the suit needed a drink of water.
Chris Nichols is the featured artist at The Hive Gallery and Studios for the month of March. The opening is March 3rd from 8-12:30AM and the show will run through the 28th.