Mentorship is the fastest way to go from where you are today, to where you want to be! Learn How Mentorship Works or join this mentors group below. Not sure what stage you are? Click here for descriptions.
Mentoring Aspiring Artists Not sure if you’re an aspiring artist? Find your stage here.
MEDIUM: Oil | Drawing SPECIALTY:✔ Technical
Chris began painting outdoors as a teenager in the forests of Upstate New York and Canada. After working as a freelance illustrator for five years, he moved to New York City, where he studied drawing and painting with Nelson Shanks, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Dean Keller. In 2004, Chris founded Boxart Street Atelier in Rochester, New York, where he taught figurative and landscape painting for ten years.
Realizing that the most impactful moments of his career were related to painting outdoors, Chris launched Paint Out West to share the outdoor painting experience with students from around the world. These workshops allow painters to travel and create alongside Chris, either in person or from the comfort of their own studios.
Chris’s work intentionally rides the edge between realism and impressionism, often emphasizing ephemeral qualities of atmosphere and luminosity. His favorite studio is anywhere outdoors. “I love the clarity and immediacy of painting roaring waterfalls or sun-baked badlands. There is nothing like the swoosh of a hawk slicing through a canyon updraft as I try to capture fleeting effects of light.”
CHRIS’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Specialty:✔ Technical
Technical:
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Alla Prima Painting
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Brushwork & Mark-Making
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Color
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Composition
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Critiques
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Demos
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Drawing Fundamentals
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Framing Artwork
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Glazing Technique
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How to Self Critique
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Layering Techniques
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Palette Knife Painting
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Perspective Drawing
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Plein Air
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Supplies & Tools
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Working From Life
Marketing:
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Art Competitions
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Advertising & Paid Promotion
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Email Marketing
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Photographing Artwork & Digital Editing
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Social Media
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Video Filming & Editing
Business:
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Commissions
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Online Courses Creation
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Teaching and How to Get Started
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Live Event Painting
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Pricing Artwork
“Mastrius is a perfect balance of accountability, community and fun.
It feels like family. Family that makes you a better you.” ~ Elizabeth, Emerging Artist
JOIN NOW
select your mentorship group
If the group you’re interested in has a waitlist, you have the option to join another group to get started. When your group opens we can transfer you over.
Your Membership Includes (click here):
Mentorship Session: Meet via video conference for a monthly 2-hour session with your Mentor and small group. You choose the mentor, we provide the group!
Mid-Month Session: Meet via video conference for a 1-hour session with your small group and Navigator to connect, share progress, encouragement, and support.
Weekly Events: Attend LIVE weekly events online, on hot topics like Finding Your Style, Composition & Critiques, plus master DEMOS. Access event recordings!
MyStudio: Access your private online studio space equipped with business tools and Mentorship Session Recordings.
Chat Group: Access your private online chat group to connect with your small group and Navigator (group facilitator) anytime.
Discounts: Enjoy member discounts on LIVE and ON-DEMAND courses, art supplies, and more!
Aspiring
Mentorship Membership
$ USD110/Monthly Membership
Focus: Technique • Skills: Alla prima painting, Brushwork & mark-making, Color • Mediums: Acrylic, Oil • Styles: Impressionism, Painterly, Representational • Subject Matter: Landscape, Western, Seascape
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Next session: November 13, 2025
On the 2nd Thursday of every month 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM MST Thu
Not your timezone? Click below
Group Focus
What makes a landscape painting punchy? Is it contrast or something else? In this Mastrius group, we will focus on controlling our values for impact. We will discover the importance of reducing values into a few major families and maintaining gaps between those families. We will use gray marker sketches to simplify the values found in our landscape photos. Then, we will premix colors based on the simplified values of our sketch. When we paint, we will avoid copying all of the halftones in our photo. Instead, we will maintain the value gaps of our color mixtures, painting within our “value budget.” Along the way, we will cover the basics, such as materials, drawing, composition, perspective, and brushwork.
You Will Learn: • How to design a compelling composition • How to mix colors with confidence • How to budget values for impact • A simple process for laying out, blocking in, and finishing an oil painting • Expressive paint handling, and dynamic brush and knife techniques
FREE eBOOK: Secrets You Won't Learn In Art School
✔ Where creative BLOCKS come from, how to identify them, and how to quickly move forward
✔ What not to be a SLAVE to (this feels counter-intuitive to most artists)
✔ Two things to focus on that improve the VALUE range making your art more interesting
Plus 16 other tips from successful Master Artists that you won't learn in art school.
