Chris Adessa is a representational fine artist whose studio overlooks the San Francisco Bay in the historic ICB building in Sausalito, California. Born in New York State, she was drawn to the San Francisco Bay Area over 30 years ago for its magnificent beauty and gentle climate.
A plein air landscape painter for decades, she has been enjoying studio painting enormously in recent years. Her two current major series are Everyday Sacred and Veiled Vistas, which is loosely connected to her earlier work.
Her Veiled Vistas series began during a plein air painting session on a stunning ranch in far northwest Marin some years ago. Overlooking the pasture were long stands of trees planted in the 1800’s, that framed the landscape. That experience inspired her to paint the scene that day and later to explore the notion of “seeing beyond” as a subject.
In her paintings, the places “seen beyond” are imagined and read as feelings as well as visually. The sun, the mist, the wind on your cheek are all evoked, just as in her 30 years of plein air landscape painting out in the field. She says, “Painting Veiled Vistas is a meditative process of give and take … painting back and forth between the veil and the vista until it says what I want it to say, and what I hope a viewer will enjoy. And maybe you too will get lost in the painting, just as I do as I paint.”
Her series Everyday Sacred celebrates the extraordinary in the ordinary, painting portraits of commonplace, enduring objects: a light bulb, a paintbrush, a pile of books, a vise … in a finely nuanced monochrome palette. It speaks volumes quietly. These objects are timeless and she seeks to portray their innate beauty … and she invites her viewer to do the same.
Her work has been shown in museums and galleries across the United States, published in books, and can be found in collections internationally.
Her work is available through her ICB studio 278A. Book your private studio appointment today.
STUDIO 278A
PAINTING
