“Because his abstractions in progress bristle with visual interest—including an icing of drips and tangles of wild line—as each work moves toward its conclusion, Gwaltney plays the role of an editor, eliminating anything that he feels stands in the way of expressive clarity. “I think that what great poets do is distill feeling,” he comments. “I want to do the same thing in painting and present the absolute essence of an emotional state.” Because of his rigorous quest for pure feeling, viewers of Gwaltney’s work should understand that the essence of his art is this: what is left is what is needed.”
John Seed, Art Writer
Balancing between abstraction and figurative, the works of Chris Gwaltney (b. 1953) are evocative, luminous, and lush. Having studied Bay Area figurative painters - such as Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliviera, and David Park - and influenced by the works of Joan Mitchell and Robert Motherwell, Gwaltney begins each work with a conversation in mind. Gwaltney lives in Laguna Beach and holds a BA and MA from the University of California State Fullerton. He has exhibited throughout the US and Europe.