A Modern Pop Artist

One could easily come away with a sense of joy and wonder from viewing Chris Palmer’s illustrations and paintings. Drawing inspiration from comic books, television, and movies, Chris creates his compositions entirely from memory while maintaining many recognizable details from iconic pop-culture subjects.

Chris approaches his art with confidence. He starts his drawings with markers, eschewing the traditional approach of first sketching the forms out in pencil. This choice demonstrates Chris’ precision and technical strengths, as everything is started and completed as planned. There are no mistakes to correct or touch up. Similarly, when rendering vehicles and environments, Chris creates these without the use of a ruler or guide. Again, every line is drawn or painted as intended.

Although the subjects Chris features in his artwork are familiar to fans of pop-culture, they are still created and interpreted in a style that is clearly Chris’ own. They are not copies but his own translations which are at once identifiable and unique. We can see this in small subtleties, which may go unnoticed at first. It is the way that the characters are spaced and posed. Sometime harmoniously spread out in the design, sometimes bunched together to draw focus to a distanced individual. Chris illustrates different temperaments through the body language, which again help to emphasize the traits of his subjects. Playful, friendly, serious, or confident, all these are details which add to the success of the image.

Chris and his work have been featured in several exhibits throughout the years, including shows at the Morris Museum, the Easter Seals Thrive event, and Arts Access’ own Full Circle event. You can even see Chris at work in our program overview video, Art Without Boundaries.

The meticulous and confident way in which Chris creates his unique renditions of pop-culture is truly a delight for the viewer. His technical abilities are impressive and mark him as an authentic modern pop artist. We are proud to include Chris among our talented artists and are anxious to see what subjects he examines next. To stay up to date with what Chris and all of our other artists are achieving, be sure to join our email list and follow us on social media.