Chris Crossen

I am a painter based out of Lake Tahoe, California. My work is Inspired by time spent exploring and studying landscapes throughout the world, wilderness, and environmental change. Paintings employ elemental forms, exploring perception, patterns, randomness, and natural processes. I use various watercolor and acrylic techniques to abstract a place’s complexity | simplicity to explore how we see, remember, and attach importance, given constant flux and our very brief time here.

My watercolor technique utilizes individually painted, overlapping cells and washes of varying pigmentation and opacity, applied to paper. These layers dry, and then a new wash is applied, repeating until the composition is satisfied - larger abstract paintings may have 5,000+ cells, each representing a moment, a layer, laid down to create a composition over time.

Pieces are included in public and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

UC Berkeley
University of Notre Dame

Select Collections

Art in Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State

UIHC Project Art Collection, Iowa City, Iowa

MD Anderson Collection, Houston, Texas

University of Texas

L’Ermitage, Beverly Hills, California

Viceroy Snowmass, Snowmass Village, Colorado

The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, California

Charles Schwab, San Francisco, California

Genentech, South San Francisco, California