Chris Lea

Visual Arts
Paul Manaster

Christopher Lea is a painter who lives and works in New York. A native of Yorkshire, England, Lea studied with Euan Uglow at the Slade School of Fine Art and learned that art can unite close observation of nature with art history. He also studied paint-making and old master technique with Arthur Lucas, Chief Restorer of the National Gallery, and continues to hand-grind his own paint. At the New York Studio School, he learned abstraction and pure painting with Fredrick Thursz and Milton Resnick. The dialogue between these different artistic traditions still directs his studio practice. At City College, he studied sculpture and printmaking for his MFA. Lea’s recent themes address aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and attitudes to nature and the environmental crisis. His works are in private collections.  

Since 2004, Lea has taught K-12 in NYC public schools as well as many institutions of higher education including CCNY, BMCC, Columbia University, College of New Rochelle, the National Arts Council in Singapore and SFAC in South Korea through a collaboration with Lincoln Center Education. He also has experience teaching student populations with disabilities including Autism and Dementia. 

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Styrofoam Printing Grades 2-8 Residency (In-person & Virtual), In-Person Workshop,

This program is designed to introduce the art of printing to students. Students will make motifs for individual prints and combine the motifs into a pattern. The pattern will be used to explore fabric arts and to create a model for an article of clothing. By creating a printing plate, making a print, and understanding how to print reverse images, students will select and use organizational structures and analyze what makes them effective or not in the communication of ideas. Students reflect upon the effectiveness of their choices. 

Narrative Cut-outs Grades 3-8 Residency (In-person & Virtual), In-Person Workshop,

Students will integrate visual, spatial, and temporal concepts with content to communicate intended meaning in their artworks. Students analyze, describe, and demonstrate how factors of time and place influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art. Students will be inspired through their own journaling, and the natural world. 

Frottage Grades 3-8 Residency (In-person & Virtual), In-Person Workshop,

Using pencils and paper and the frottage (tracing) technique students will explore shape, pattern, color, and rhythm to suggest the qualities of particular places. Students will walk around the school or block noting buildings, windows, signs concentrating on shapes and patterns. Students will cut the accumulated frottage patterns and assemble them into architectural shapes, combining student works into a neighborhood map. 

walt disney concert hall

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CONCERT Hall

the master chorale

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los angeles
master Chorale