Free Flow
"Acoma," Chris Ruff, oil on canvas, 15" x 30". Story by Suzi Mitchell.
Artist Chris Ruff grew up with his very own gallery. It was housed prominently in his family home in Steamboat Springs – on the refrigerator. “Mom hung all my artwork,” he says with a huge grin.
Today the Routt County native is packing his paints and heading to Portland, Oregon, where he plans to turn his hobby and longtime daily habit into a profession. “After the pandemic when things got slower, I really started to evaluate how much time I spent painting and realized I needed and wanted to do more with my art,” he says.
Home in recent years has been Bend, Oregon, where until now, he was a high school teacher. A graduate of the University of Denver, his chosen field was geography, a decision inspired by a
childhood spent with hands in the dirt and his feet in streams. Those sensory-driven memories translate visually in his artwork. “My paintings are very autobiographical,” he says, attributing his subject matter – often of fish, rivers and mountains, to his childhood.
“Some of my earliest memories are being in a dory boat or a raft on the river,” he continues. Chris’s parents, Jeff and Lisa, are qualified fishing guides and would take Chris and his brother, Drew, on countless excursions, instilling an appreciation for waterways and open spaces.
“I first rode the White Rim in a baby seat on my mom’s bike,” he says with more laughter. The family often features in his work. “He painted an incredible piece for Mother’s Day of a person on a horse set in a spectacular Southwest backdrop,” Lisa says. “You can literally feel the awe from the rider emanating right out of the painting.”
Another favorite piece depicts his brother casting in a river standing in an inch of water. “To me, Drew walks on water and it looks like he is doing just that in the painting,” Chris says.
His artistic drive started at an early age in art class at Strawberry Park Elementary, where he’d fill page after page of creations in pencil and crayon. In middle school he morphed into acrylics painting favorite sports personalities.
In high school he found his favorite medium and adopted his own style. His teacher, local artist Rich Galusha, remembers him as a prolific student. “He produced more artwork than any student and was very adaptable working with many mediums,” Rich says.
Chris focused on what he saw in his subject matter rather than what he thought he saw. “I paint from my subconscious in a flow state,” he says. He wants those viewing his work to sense an otherworldly perspective.
“Chris sees things most people don’t, with an insight to capture alternative points of view,” Lisa says. “He will anthropomorphize subjects, something I feel is deeply unique about his work.”
The overarching sensory aspect in his art speaks to his choice of oil for its ability to change and mold strokes. There is a parallel in his creative process with the rhythms he witnesses in nature, whether from striations in a landscape to the movement of a fish. “I want my paintings to emulate the beauty and grandeur of the natural world,” says the man who can attribute his deep-set love of the outdoors to his Yampa Valley roots.