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www.ChrisOArt.com
Recipient of the 2007 National Society of Painters in Casein & Acrylic (NSPCA) Prize, the Classic Car Club of America 2003 Fine Art Award of Excellence, and the Glenmoor Gathering (Ohio) 2007 Best of Show award, Chris Osborne pays homage to the American automobile by way of the art of portraiture. “There are key things in American culture that absorb my attention, the fabulous cars of decades past, the colorful people who drove them, the Hollywood Golden Age, and the true American musical genres, Jazz & Blues. Any combination of these elements may appear in my work. After exhaustive factual research and the use of figurative models, I like to apply an imaginative view of history, bringing to the present a candid moment in time shared with the viewer.”
Raised in New Milford, Connecticut, Osborne received a BA in Art from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson NY and an MFA in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After an extended stay on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970’s, she moved to New York City, working with legendary artist’s agent Jane Lander representing a group of illustrators with a preference toward fine art. This pivotal move guided Chris toward figurative drawing and painting, and in the mid-1980’s she left the agent profession to pursue art on her own. Over the decade of the 1990’s Chris supplemented her work by managing the Jazz & Blues department at Tower Records Lincoln Center, the largest retail record store in New York, which put her significantly in the midst of the music world. It was an experience that will forever enrich her painting, as she is currently working on a history of Jazz and a history of Blues in visual form, decade by decade, city by city, with the American automobile as a natural focal point.
Also, a painting of Jimi Hendrix with his 1969 Corvette Stingray is a current work in progress.
Chris has exhibited widely in galleries and art associations in the Northeast and New York City, along with invitational exhibits at annual Collector Car events such as the Kruse Auction in Auburn, Indiana, the Louisville Concours d’Elegance, the Hamptons Concours d’Elegance, the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles, the Las Vegas Concours d’Elegance, the Fairfield County Concours d’Elegance, and the Classic Car Club of America annual gathering in Hickory Corners, Michigan. She was the CCCA poster artist for 2005. In April & May of 2006 the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum and Kruse Museum in Indiana exhibited her work in a solo show. The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists honored her with a 2010 Award of Merit.
