biography

Chris Cart, American

In June of 2023 we installed my 700 square foot mural for Hallowell, Maine.  It is a mural of the history and present of the city. You can see the Hallowell Mural here.

I have also been working, as a very involved assistant, on a large mural for Brunswick, Maine.  “Many Stitches Hold up the Sky”.  This mural was designed by my wife, Jen Greta Cart.  This 1400 square foot mural we also installed this summer of 2023, from an aerial lift 60 feet up the wall at Cabot Mills in Brunswick Maine—it was a busy summer.

In 2021 I was accepted as a Signature Member to the National Watercolor Society.

In 2019 I collaborated with mural master John Gable to create two large murals for a venue in the outskirts of Washington D.C.

I have had several pieces chosen for the annual  Painting the Figure Now exhibits at the beautiful Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art WMOCA.

Another public commission was a new painting for the New Lithgow Library in Augusta, Maine, Stories from the Mezzanine.

I recently completed a new 21 foot mural for Bath, Maine.  The theme is the “Spirit of Bath” which, of course, wraps around the history of shipbuilding in this City of Ships.

In 2015 I finished a public mural for the new Capital Judicial Center in Maine’s capital at Augusta.  This 14 x 40-foot mural, a Maine Percent for Art project, called Kennebec is a maritime history of the Kennebec River with people, ships, history…lots of drama. 

Over the years I have created many murals.   Working big is having the sky for your canvas.  However, I have also worked very small, illustrating over 30 books and book covers, painting miniatures, carving block prints, drawing etchings and monotypes.  I love making things.

As a young ‘starving artist’, I started out as a sculptor in Guadalajara, Mexico, carving masks, and modeling figures in clay.  But I found the lure of the brush too much to resist.  And the best advice given to me back then by an old Disney artist was, “Draw, draw, draw.”  I have never stopped.

With a pencil or brush in hand I can create worlds within the canvas frame.  The figures are my players and the canvas my stage.   However, I am no fantasy artist.   Reality creates the spark.  My eyes open, I find things that need to be in my paintings.

I have exhibited in galleries and exhibitions in Maine, Seattle and New York City.  As an illustrator I have worked for Hearst Books, William Morrow, Greenwillow Books, Random House and DownEast Books of Maine.  And creating sets and playbills for theater is a thrill.

Born in Maine, I can claim that much coveted ‘native’ status but in truth I lived away a lot.  My bones are solid New England stock but my blood carries the dusts of years in Mexico…and a bit of rust from the Pacific Northwest as well.

Back in my bohemian days I sold paintings at street shows and at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Today I enjoy the luxury of having my work in a great gallery, but there is an excitement, a rawness to selling art on the street.

I currently live with my wife and fellow painter, Jen Greta Cart, in Hallowell, Maine.