| The
Bath House Cultural Center is the home of the new White
Rock Lake Museum. The museum will preserve and present
the human and natural histoy of White Rock Lake Park
and its surrounding environment.
The White Rock Lake Museum was
inaugurated in September of 2004.
Please
visit the museum's website at www.whiterocklakemuseum.org.
White
Rock Lake:
Painted Points and Panoramas
Oil
Paintings by Chris McHenry
Reception with the artist:
Saturday, August 26, 2006 (6-9 PM)
For the Love of the Lake -
Meet the artist / Reception:
Saturday, September 9, 2006 (6-8 PM)
Free and open to the public.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My career as a pictorial billboard artist brought me
to the Dallas area over 25 years ago. I started painting
the second day I arrived and have been painting here
almost every day since in one capacity or another as
a billboard artist, mural painter, scenic painter, and
digitally as a computer artist. My roundabout journey
from architectural studies at Louisiana Tech to landscape
painting in Dallas included a detour to New Orleans,
if anyone could consider New Orleans merely a detour.
While studying fine art at the University of New Orleans
I became familiar with the work of pop artist James
Rosenquist. His bold, seemingly simple style appealed
to me. I studied his work, discovered that he had once
painted billboards, and without consciously thinking
about it decided to follow in his footsteps. One day
while walking down Canal Street I looked up and saw
a scaffold hanging from an enormous billboard atop a
5 or 6 story building and on it walking back and forth
like there was no tomorrow were two painters in the
middle of painting a woman’s cheek for a liquor
advertisement. It looked very impressive, absolutely
fascinating, and admittedly slightly scary. A week later
I was working with these same painters at an outdoor
advertising company in New Orleans. I loved the idea
of painting huge images of famous people’s faces,
Coke bottles, cars, whiskey bottles and other pictures
on signs 14 feet high by 48 feet wide sometimes 30 to
100 feet above the ground while motorists and pedestrians
hurried by below.
Painting billboards was my day job. Painting urban scenes
in the evenings and on the weekends was my passion.
Eventually I began pursuing my fine art career full-time;
I created realistically rendered cityscapes in oil on
canvas of downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston.
Gradually my interest shifted away from predominately
architectural images to landscapes with minor architectural
elements. For the past few years White Rock Lake has
been the focus of my artistic interest. I like the fact
that even though White Rock is in the middle of a large
metropolitan area it is still possible to do a realistic
painting here that has a wild Texas feeling to it with
twisted willows and gnarly elm and cedar trees. Many
of my White Rock scenes have been panoramic views and
most include large areas of sky and water. Recently
I outfitted a paint boat so that I can get out on the
lake and paint views that are inaccessible from the
shore. Whenever possible I finish small to medium size
paintings on location using a French easel or a pochade
box on a tripod. Larger paintings are completed in the
studio using on site color sketches and photographs
as reference One window of my studio looks out towards
the lake; when I see interesting cloud, weather, or
lighting conditions I quickly head to the lake to capture
the moment.
For variety I paint other locations in the Dallas area
such as Turtle Creek and I also take paint trips to
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas and Big Bend National
Park. From time to time I do commissioned paintings
that might include a client’s sailboat, home, or
vacation property. Painting a variety of locations,
talking to clients, and getting feedback from viewers
is always helpful. Everyone looks at a painting from
a different perspective. A runner might look at one
of my early morning paintings and comment that it looks
like an ozone free day, a sailor examining the water
and position of the boats remarks that the wind is about
10 mph from the south, and a bike rider might consider
the condition of the bike path. It is always interesting
to see how different viewers interpret the same image;
this type of input helps me to keep my work fresh. I
can imagine myself painting views of White Rock for
many years to come.
My wife and I live on a hill overlooking White Rock
Lake. Currently, I am a full time landscape artist and
my work is shown by Marie Park, private dealer, Dallas,
Texas; Sherry French Gallery, New York, New York; and
on my website: www.chrismchenry.com.
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