Chris Wilkens
by Michele Malinchak
Christopher Willett remembers exactly when he began painting. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon at his grandmother’s house when he was about ten. She always had art supplies on hand including piles of National Geographic magazines. Chris wasn’t all that interested in art before, but he opened up the box of supplies and found himself painting a portrait of two people out of National Geographic.
That day set the stage for a career in fine art now spanning thirty years. Currently, the Bucks County artist captures local landscapes and historic Native American scenes in oils and watercolor.
Given his ancestry, Chris’s talent should come as no surprise. Primitive artist Edward Hicks, famous for his painting, Peaceable Kingdom, is related to Chris on his paternal grandfather’s side. Other Willett family members include the artisans who designed the stained glass windows at Bryn Athyn Cathedral at the Pitcairn estate in Bryn Athyn, Pa. In addition, his grandmother, Emma was a porcelain painter and teacher in Philadelphia.
Chris’s ancestors date back even earlier to the first settlers arriving at Plymouth, Ma., on the Mayflower and Victory. One of his relatives, Captain Augustine Willett, served under the command of George Washington.
Born in Abington in 1960, Chris was named after the doctor who delivered him. He grew up in Warrington with seven siblings and another girl who was taken in by the family. “We all helped raise one another,” he said. The house was a hub of activity and there were always people coming over. “My mother cooked and we’d often have three guests joining us at the table,” he said. His father was an engineer who designed several buildings in Philadelphia including the Valley Forge Military Academy. He taught Chris to be self-reliant and also charitable towards others. Throughout his childhood, Chris recalled his family helping the poor.
After graduating from Central Bucks East High School, Chris served four years in the Navy. He was briefly sent to Iran during the Iran hostage crisis on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Independence. Additionally, he completed two years as a reservist at Willow Grove Air Base.
Following his military service he received a grant to study at Hartnell University in Salinas, Ca. It took him a month to drive cross country, stopping at several Indian reservations along the way. He lived in Monterey while attending school but eventually found California too laid back for him. “I missed Pennsylvania,” he said.
When he came back home he worked at the now closed Al Bucks Hardware store in Doylestown. Working during the day and painting at night, he saved enough money to open a store and studio in Buckingham. Quickly outgrowing it after six months, he moved to Lahaska where he opened Ancestors Native American Art. After another six months, he outgrew that space and moved to a studio on Mechanic Street in New Hope for the next six years.
In the early 1980s, Chris attended Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Similar to his experience at Hartnell University, he became bored with his classes.
Around this time he met the late artist, Andrew Wyeth and his son, Jamie, at a show in New York. Wyeth became a friend and mentor and told Chris he needed to separate himself from the rest of the pack. “He said when someone could recognize your painting in a restaurant from across the room, you know you made it,” Chris stated.
He recalled spending time in Chadds Ford at the Wyeth homestead and becoming friends with artist Karl J. Kuerner and his wife, Louise, both of whom were major subjects in Wyeth’s paintings. Chris also met Helga Testorf, another well-known subject portrayed in Wyeth’s series, The Helga Pictures.
Chris is known for his landscapes, especially snow and night scenes. He pointed to one of his winter scenes and said, “If you notice, there is no pure white in the snow, but it’s reflecting other colors like pink and blue.” He likes using earth tones and colors specific to this area in order to record what he sees accurately.
In the past he’d paint plein air, but now works from photos taken outdoors that are enlarged in his studio. “I want to bring depth and life to the canvas,” he said. “I don’t focus on the small stuff since most paintings are viewed from four or more feet back.”
He works rapidly, doing a painting a day. No preliminary sketches are done, rather he cuts right in and starts painting. “Ninety percent of the work is done fast,” he explained, “or I get bored with them quickly.” He usually paints between 10:30 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. without taking a break or eating, often having three or four paintings going at once.
“I used to throw out work I didn’t like, but now I save everything,” he said. Sometimes compared to Bucks County Impressionists like Edward Redfield, George Sotter and Daniel Garber, he sees his work at auctions next to those of famous deceased artists. “It’s kind of creepy in a way,” he said.
Another subject he likes to paint is Native American culture. Chris has French and MicMac Indian on his mother’s father’s side and was once an Indian in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade. “This was back in the 80s and I had hair down to my back,” he said. He also sat on the board of United American Indians of the Delaware Valley in Philadelphia for four years.
Chris is proud to have had 24 of his paintings exhibited at the State Capital building and six of them at the White House. In March 2010, he and New Hope artist Joseph Barrett were honored by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as two American painters representing the state. At the ceremony, Chris discovered his ancestor, Augustine Willett, had served in the House of Representatives from 1787-1792 followed by his son and grandson.
In keeping with his father’s tradition of helping those in need, Chris donates his work to groups such as the Heritage Conservancy and the New Hope Historical Society and to charities that feed and care for the disadvantaged. “One painting can put food on the table, pay for shoes, save open land space or buy sports equipment,” he said.
A project he feels passionately about is writing his family’s history during World War II. While not discussed openly, Chris recalled his father having flashbacks as a survivor of Auschwitz. Along with his father, three aunts and his grandmother survived the Holocaust. Chris researched other family members in Holland who may have survived only to learn they had perished. “It was shocking to see they had the same names as my living family and they were all gone,” he said. “These were people in their late teens—a whole generation wiped out.”
Chris set out to capture his father’s memories of the war by doing paintings on old newspapers from that era. He completed 32 works, one of which is entitled, In the Attic and depicts a family hiding. Sadly, his father never lived to see any of them. Chris hopes to paint portraits of others who survived and include them in a book, which will then be donated to the Shoah Foundation in Washington, D.C., an organization dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.
Chris has followed the Jewish faith since he was a teenager and honors all the traditions and holidays. He wears a mezuzah around his neck and disagrees with friends who say he should downplay his religion. The fact that anti-semitic views still prevail in Bucks County and elsewhere is of deep concern to him.
Chris is located at the Lahaska Antique Court next to Porterhouse Restaurant at 5788 York Road and will be called Lahaska Fine Arts Gallery. T Andrew Wyeth gave Chris one piece of advice that he’s taken to heart: Paint what you love. For Chris, it’s painting what we take for granted—the natural beauty of Bucks County. “I try to capture scenes in Bucks County before they disappear,” he said.