About Christopher Powell
Christopher Powell
An award winning Oil Painter
Early Days
Christopher graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, emphasizing in oil painting.
Like many artists, he struggled early on to find his own voice. He spent years trying to meticulously paint what he thought his professors wanted—with some success, and plenty of self doubt.
Then one day, an instructor sent him off to paint a still life of a few lifeless easels. Frustrated, Christopher begrudgingly set out to do exactly that. But somewhere in that frustration, something shifted. He stopped trying so hard to paint the “right” way and simply painted. When his instructor saw the result, he exclaimed, “That! Paint like that!”
In that moment, Christopher found his voice—and the beginnings of the style that would become unmistakably his own.
Finding New Landscapes
As a single father, Christopher raised his son in Flagstaff, Arizona. In his spare time, he painted the landscapes that surrounded them—a place where deer and antelope quite literally play among wooded hills, with the San Francisco Peaks rising as an awe-inspiring backdrop.
At the same time, he explored metaphor through his work, painting desertscapes, marooned sailboats, ships lost at sea, and explosions of color that expressed everything from anger to joy. His landscapes captured the world around him, while his more symbolic works gave shape to an inner one.
When Christopher moved to Austin in 2011, his work began to shift again. He found a new voice, new visions, and a broader world of inspiration. A longtime Dungeons & Dragons player and voracious reader, he began drawing more deeply from the stories, mythology, and imagined worlds that had always captivated him.
Soon, the scenes playing out in his head began finding their way onto canvas: knights in search of dragons—or perhaps windmills—fairies befriending dragons, dragons befriending dragonflies, tome cats in wizard hats, and shadows that come to life in the most delightfully haunting ways.
But Christopher never stopped painting landscapes. He often returns to them as touchstones—familiar ground that anchors his work.
After living in Austin for several years, Christopher remarried in 2017. One day, his wife asked a simple question: Why don’t you paint Longhorns and bluebonnets? After all, he was already so good at painting deer and horses. So why not?
So he did.
Texas began making its way onto his canvases: distant barns tucked into the landscape, Longhorns resting beneath shade trees, bluebonnets stretching across the countryside, and the quiet beauty of the Texas Hill Country.
So the next time you see one of Christopher’s landscapes and wonder where the inspiration comes from, now you’ll know.
It’s a little Flagstaff, and a little Hill Country.