Chris references surrealist, expressionist, and neo-expressionist punk styles in his art. During the 80s, he was a drummer-instrumentalist in alternative rock bands; Gothic Farmyard, Moonshots, and various blues bands. Even today, he still plays around with music under the name: Xtrobitz project and finds ways to use music as soundscapes with visual imagery.
His paintings explore the unconscious mind and meld imagery using the power of imagination in a stage-like environment. Psychic automatism meets the real world in many of his creations and personal symbology fills the space in between.
He says: Research of subject matter is important and mulling over the way an idea connects with its title and how it is presented consumes as much time as painting it some days. My subject matter is often elongated, distorted, and repeated throughout the composition to emphasise and exaggerate movement and rhythm. The colour palette in my work is often limited so when intermixing I maintain a relationship between the main colours selected. However, I also overlay vivid hues (complementary colours) to produce strong contrast and play around with tonal variation to indicate multiple sources of lighting. These techniques are important for creating a charged atmosphere.
In his work, objects often lose their identity and metamorphose or they could be transformative from tight to a loose arrangement and represented as dragged and hacked brushwork. Christopher avoids completely describing a scene that is based on a life experience and prefers to let it float off into his motif, being distorted cloud formations.
Christopher’s art practice spans more than 35 years and displays his interest in the absurd and keen observation of contemporary life events.
During the last 4 decades, Christopher has sporadically held solo, and group exhibitions completed many commissions, and presented his work of late, in many themed shows. When not directly involved in exhibiting his work due to personal health constraints, he has curated and hung many shows, created online exhibitions, and worked as an educator and consultant in senior college visual arts, photography, computer design, and multimedia. He has also worked as a graphic designer and freelance illustrator. In the early 90s, he illustrated a teen book of short stories written by Andy Griffiths and also produced his own illustrated booklets. Christopher’s work is represented in public and private collections in Australia and Internationally.