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08/24/2007
Artist earns national recognitionChris Chantland specializes in animal portraits
Chantland, who specializes in portraits like this one, is featured this month on AllLabs.com. TRAVERSE CITY — Excited about his first commission, artist Chris Chantland just couldn't understand why his clients didn't want to save a little money. The Traverse City-based portraiture artist, featured this month on AllLabs.com, was trying to convince a couple from Greenville, N.C., to just e-mail some photos of their dog. Instead, they wanted to fly Chantland in. But he was just getting back into the business of commissioned portraiture at the time, so kept saying, 'I can save you money.' 'Oh, not a problem,' they said. 'We'll fly you down here.'” He relented and called a friend to share the good news. His friend knew the couple from Greenville, "Chris, you don't understand,” he said. "When they said 'fly you down there,' they meant they'd send their corporate jet to pick you up.” Valuable lesson learned for Chantland, a self-taught official artist of the National Open and Amateur Labrador Retriever Championships and the Master National Hunt Club. He specializes in animal portraiture and his work has been featured on the covers of Retriever Journal and Pointing Dog Journal. "He seems to capture the essence of the dog very well,” said Laura Barmore, the owner of AllLabs. The Web site claims the title of the largest international retailer of Labrador retriever equipment. "We had pegged Chris back in the fall of last year to feature him at this time,” she said, to coincide with their feature on the national amateur lab winner; Chantland paints the picture of the winner of the annual award each year. The AllLabs customer database numbers 28,000 for the store based in Karen, Va. And labs are the No. 1 dog on the American Kennel Club registration list. "They're quite popular,” Chantland said. "And not only can they be great house pets, they can be trained to do awesome things.” Chantland, who paints in oil, watercolor, graphite or acrylic, hooked up with AllLabs through a friend in Traverse City who knew Barmore. He estimated 35 percent of his annual income comes from commissioned work. "My paintings range from $1,500 on up,” he said. "A typical, average painting in oil — and I just finished one for a lady in California, one of her black labs — will fetch about $3,000.” He flies out to meet the clients, takes about 100 pictures from all angles and works from the photos. After sharing some initial sketches with the client, "I turn on the old movies and start painting. It's great.” Chantland started getting back into art about four years ago. Though he painted the national champions in 2001, he always kept a full-time job, currently managing the Web site for Fieldsport, a hunting equipment store in Traverse City. He doesn't only paint dogs, though. Chantland displays work at various arts festivals around the southern east coast, including one every year at the Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival in Thomasville, Ga. The customer base in that area is largely affluent land owners — "old money,” he said. Price is a tricky thing, he said. Charge too much and people will pass; charge too little and people assume you're no good. He started showcasing commissioned portraits of people last year and recently finished a piece on two kids hunting quail with their setters. Locally, a few of his works are on display at Fieldsport and the Frame Depot. "(The paintings) all have their unique twists about them,” he said. "You tend to think of the artist as the expert of all things. Well that's not necessarily true. Sometime I'll get so close to the work and not see something that's wrong.” Beyond cosmetic considerations, capturing the essence and personality of a person takes skill. This is why Chantland likes to meet his portrait subjects — dogs, humans or otherwise. "I'd love to make a full-time living with this,” he said. "But the best thing about the commission — the money comes and goes — but the best thing is that nine times out of 10, I've made friends out of the people I do commissions for.” Visit www.chrischantland.com when the site opens in September.
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