My name is Chris Chalk ( as you may have twigged already ) and I am an artist living and working in the Pembrokeshire village of Cilgerran near Cardigan in west Wales
Art has been my passion ever since I was a small boy growing up on a dairy farm in west Wales where I used to spend a lot of time drawing and sketching wildlife. In 1981 I attended a wildlife drawing course at the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust which fuelled my passion further. Then of course I did grow up and life got in the way of my art for a number of years. I started off my working life as a Gamekeeper at 16 years old, then aged 18 I changed career path quite dramatically and for the next 4 years worked as a plumber completing my plumbing apprenticeship in Swindon in Wiltshire. At 22 I again changed direction and joined the Royal Navy as a marine engineer and for the following five years I sailed the seven seas ( well, a couple of them anyway ).
Aged 27 and having recently left the services I packed my rucksack and moved to New Zealand for a year, which ended up turning into six years of adventures, travelling and living in both New Zealand and Australia. I had a ball!. Whilst living in Australia I attended the CAE in Melbourne and completed a art / drawing course.
I came back to the UK in 2004 to have an operation on my knee and have now settled and live about 15 miles from where I grew up in a small village of Cilgerran in Pembrokeshire west Wales. It seems strange to me sometimes how my life so far has taken me all around the world and then back to where I started... drawing and painting in Wales. My preferred medium is oil painting and I paint a variety of subjects from Welsh Landscape Paintings, Wildlife Paintings, Pet Portraits to Seascapes and Portraits. I started off as most artist do with watercolours but decided to concentrate more on oils after being inspired watching a BBC television programme by Rolf Harris ( what a legend! ). With oil painting I find I can get stuck in without the planning necessary with watercolours and any mistakes that occur can be corrected later. It's a very much more forgiving medium and is much better suited to my temperament.
I am an active member of the Cardigan Art Society and exhibited some of my work in their highly successful 2008 summer exhibition held in the Theatre Mwldan in Cardigan.
A selection of my paintings are on show and for sale at art gallery and picture framers 'Frame by Frame' which is situated in Cardigan Town high street.
I also had one of my paintings accepted for the Patchings 2008 art exhibition. Which is part of the Patchings 2008 festival
I paint everyday. Not for any deep and meaningful reason such as to find myself or to explore my inner thoughts, but simply because I love it.
That's it, if you're still awake ( well done! ) take a look around my site here to see some of my most recent work. If you'd like to let me know what you think you can either leave a message in my guest book or just drop me an email.
Best Wishes ~ Chris
