Chris Kling
Chris states “Being an artist is not just my career. It is an integral part of who I am and is something that I am compelled to do. I work in oil primarily in a traditional manner but with a contemporary flair through color, composition, value, and application of paint. Color sings to me and I try to use its harmony to evoke an emotional connection with others. I love to paint plein air which helps my studio work retain an authenticity that only comes from observation from life. Painting, to me, is reaching out to find the common emotional connection between all of us.”
Chris Kling earned her BFA in 1979 and since then has received numerous awards from shows for her landscapes and portraiture throughout the United States. In addition, she has received hundreds of commissions for oil portraits earning awards through the Portrait Society of America. Both her portraits and landscapes are in private and corporate collections in the United States as well as in international collections. She served as one of the “Florida’s Finest Ambassadors” for the Forgotten Coast en Plein Air 2018 in Apalachicola and has been an Invited Artist the last several years in the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival, New Smyrna Paint Out, Winter Park Paint Out, Plein Fun Fest, and newly in the Coastal Colors Paint Out and the Ocean Reef Paint Out 2025 in Key Largo. In Stuart ArtsFest she has won several awards through the years and notably was given First Place in Painting in 2022. She was honored with Second Place in the St. Augustine en Plein Air Exhibition 2023. Chris was thrilled to be the Cover Artist for the New Smyrna Beach Paint Out 2022 and for Ocean Reef 2025. And in her hometown of Stuart, Florida she received the honor of MartinArts Visual Artist in 2021! She teaches occasional workshops in Oil Portraiture, Figurative, and Plein Air in the New Studio for the Visual Arts in Jupiter, the Elliott Museum in Stuart, and the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta.
Chris is a member of the Portrait Society of America, American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, NOAPS, Martin Artisans Guild, and Plein Air Palm Beach. Chris has work in several galleries in Florida and you may see her work on Facebook at Chris Kling Studio and at her website, www.chrisklingartist.com . She is represented by Rare Earth Gallery, Palm City Art and Frame, Doris Clements Interiors of Stuart, Sea Spirits Gallery, and Lost Art Gallery in St. Augustine, FL.
You may contact her at 772-285-7826.
Recent National Exhibitions:
- 2019 AIS National Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NYC, NY
- 2019 OPA Eastern Regional, Beverly McNeil Gallery, Birmingham, AL
- 2020 NOAPS Small Works Best of America, McBride Gallery, Annapolis, MD
- 2020 OPA Juried National Exhibition, RS Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX
- 2020 NOAPS Best of America Juried National Exhibition, Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, St. Augustine, FL
- 2022 OPA Juried National Exhibition, Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, CO
- 2023 NOAPS International Juried Exhibition, Alexandria, VA
- 2023 OPA Eastern Regional, Beverly McNeil Gallery, Birmingham, AL
- 2024 AIS National Exhibition, Rockport, MA
- 2025 AIS Small Works Show, Fallbrook Art Center, Fallbrook, CA
- 2025 OPA National Juried Exhibition, Herrig Center for the Arts, Bradenton, FL
- 2025 NOAPS Best of America Small Works International, Juried Exhibition, Eisele Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
