DPW Spotlight Interview: Chris Greco

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Chris's painting "Hale Farm 2" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Chris's DPW Gallery Page:

I am a Fine Artist, Illustrator, Animator and Art Director.

My film and TV projects include; Mulan, Tarzan, How to Haunt a House, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear, My Peoples/A Few Good Ghosts, Polar Express, Spiderman 2, Get Along Gang, Word World, Free Birds, Rainbow Valley Fire Department, Rainbow Valley Police Department.

I have worked on Video Games and Mobile Games (Panda Pop, Juice Jam and Dwarves) In addition to my work in animation,I have had a long career in illustration.

I am best known for my work on sports trading cards, including; SCORE and Team PINNACLE Baseball, Footbal and Hockey trading cards. My illustration clients have included; Hallmark Greeting Cards, American Greeting Cards, ABC, NBC, King Features Syndicate, General Electric, LA Times Syndicate, Doubleday and IBM.

Originally from New England, I currently reside in Ohio with my family.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I knew at five years old that I was going to be an artist. I was obsessed with Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell, John James Audubon, John Gnagy and all of the illustrators in my mothers magazines. I was never very interested in coloring, but in creating my own drawings. I became serious about learning to paint at about fourteen or fifteen when I got my first set of oil paints.



Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

I have always had to work so that has at times interfered or slowed down my painting but has never stopped it. I was a tattoo artist, newspaper comics artist, illustrator, greeting card artist, animation (film and TV artist - (background painter, animator), videogame/mobile game artist, art director. All of it has both helped and slowed down my own personal painting.


Hale Farm 2
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Chris's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I have worked in most traditional mediums. Drawing and painting in the commercial art world demanded versatility and I have always been curious.



Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

I paint in Oils primarily but over the last three years I have moved towards Gouache and Acrylic and occasionally Watercolor. I like the variety of materials. I will be moving back into oils soon as I begin large works that I have been interested in for some time.

Air brush, I am so happy that I haven’t had to use one in fifteen years and I hope I never see one again!



Boys Shelf
(click to view)

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I have always been interested in trying egg tempera. I am also interested in learning and exploring print making.


Who or what inspires you most?

I love most of the same painters that all other representational painters like, ie – Sargent, Zorn, Hopper, Homer, Rockwell, Wyeth etc.  I find inspiration just about everywhere and in just about everything. The act of creating is addictive and as necessary as breathing for me.

Huntington Crowd
(click to view)



What does procrastination look like for you?

Depression. It is difficult for me to determine if I am depressed, so I procrastinate and “don’t” paint or if I’m depressed because I’m “not” painting. What is easy for me to recognize is the cure – painting!



What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Compromise, as a father and husband it is imperative.  I frequently used my wife and children as subjects so that we could still picnic, go to the beach etc., everyone had to take a turn and pose for twenty minutes and then we can play.  Nowadays, I don’t make plans or socialize much to avoid any conflict with my painting time.

Clague Park View
(click to view)



How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

Usually I have a general theme in mind, sometimes a fully thought out idea but I think that I just start and an idea will grow out of the painting. I am a big believer in the organic growth of the painting. I am always “texting” ideas, phrases, words to myself. I also have ideas that marinate in my imagination for years and then become paintings.



How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Changing mediums is great for that, also sizes and shapes and boards, paper, canvas etc.  I also change up my process often. Drawing, no drawing, large brushes, small brushes, different palettes, etc. I also have been switching subjects a lot lately, still life, landscape etc.



Rivers Converge
(click to view)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I’m concentrating on the pure joy of painting. I love painting the things that are overlooked or that most would ignore or never consider and also discovering the things that have some personal meaning to me.

What makes you happiest about your art?

I love the notion that one of my paintings will be a part of a family’s memories. A painting that Mom and Dad or Grandma and Granddad had hanging in their house that brings back those memories when it is passed down and is hanging in a new home.

Thanks, Chris!

© 2018 Sophie Marine