Art by Chris Pagano
Artist's Statement - Chris Pagano
Artists are compelled to draw what they love and my passion in life is animals. I dearly love them and have painted and drawn them my whole life. In my 45-year career as a professional wildlife artist, I have specialized in detailed acrylic paintings of wild birds and mammals native to the Mid-Atlantic region. My ideas come from observing the wildlife found in the woods, fields and waterways of our Central Pennsylvania home.
My grandparents were instrumental in my life’s choice to be an artist. They always had art materials on hand when I came to visit. And they always encouraged me to draw something. Some of my earliest art recollections are of drawing greeting cards with my crayons for my relatives and neighbors.
My style of painting is realistic, impressionistic or illustrative. I paint, using acrylics, on Masonite, vintage handsaws that I find at flea markets and on vertical- and bias-cut, furniture-grade, kiln-dried Pennsylvania hardwood plaques that have been chiseled, sanded, shaped and finished by my husband and myself.
I studied fine arts – painting at Kutztown University and Texas Lutheran University. Along with my college training I have studied under regionally known professional artists, Myrtle Waldspurger and Ruth Emerick.
I have illustrated for Pennsylvania Game News and have designed several Pennsylvania Farmer Christmas covers. I won the first Lehigh Valley Conservancy print and stamp contest with a painting of a great blue heron.. I have illustrated the covers for the novels, “Dragon Alliance-Rise Against Shadow” and “Dragon Alliance- Dark Storm” by J. Michael Fluck. I have placed first in numerous decoy painting competitions and have won awards at art competitions in the eastern US. I have exhibited professionally in art shows and craft festivals in the Mid-Atlantic region for the past 45 years.
My solo gallery shows include- 1998 “Appalachian Images” ,2007 “Images of Land and Sea” and 2015 “Woodland Wings”, Gallery on the Square, Millersburg, PA and 2009 featured artist, Elizabethville Library Series. I have taught “Painting and Drawing From Nature” classes at various times to groups of adults and children at the Gallery.
