Chris Newlund

Chris was born into a military family and consequently moved to a new town, a new home, and a new school nearly every year. She attended 16 different schools before attending the University of Maryland Extension in Munich, Germany and graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from Indiana University. While growing up, her family often lived in Europe where they were exposed to the great historic and artistic wonders of Italy, Germany, France and England. As a child, Chris was enthralled with the vivid colors and lively brushstrokes of the French Impressionists, and remains so to this day. Because leaving friends behind was inevitable, she turned to solitary occupations like drawing, painting, and reading. Her budding artistic efforts received much encouragement from her parents since her father was a fine furniture craftsman (when not being Col. Jessup) and her mother was an amateur oil painter and stained glass artist. Chris took up photography as a hobby when raising her four children and soon it became apparent that she would have to pursue “on location” photographic portraiture as a vocation. While maintaining her own photography studio in the Chicago area, she studied art everywhere she could find qualified instructors. She finally discovered the DuPage art league and began to pursue her first love-oil painting. She had heard that there was a group of people in Indiana that painted on location and she joined the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association in the hopes of someday being able to paint with them. When her husband accepted a job in Indiana in 2002, that dream became a reality. Chris now lives in Columbus, In., paints regularly with IPAPA, and is dedicated to improving her skills by taking as many workshops as possible. Chris and her husband divide their time between a historic home in beautiful Columbus and a log cabin in the hills of Brown County. She has taken workshops with Foster Caudell, Scott Tallman Powers, Carolyn Anderson,Todd Reifers, and Jean Chambers, CW Mundy, Scott Christensen, Quang Ho, and Dan Gerhartz, Marc Hanson, Sherrie McGraw.