So, you were switching studios yesterday?
Yeah, moved just down the street near the Navy Yards.Very excited.This is my first legit, out-of-home art studio. With a door and bathroom, anyway.
What does a day look like for you at the studio?
Coffee. I put together a media playlist for the day, alternating between podcasts, music, audiobooks. I try to spend a good amount of time thinking about my palette- if i can use up yesterday's palette on something, build a new one, scraping, cleaning, etc. I try to gauge my mood and what process is best suited for that mood: underpainting is good for restlessness, grisaille for anxiety, glazing for more serene moods. Facebook and all that is persistent distraction, of course.
There's a lot of historic references in your work. How has your paintings developed over the years to the point of how we know them today?
Yes, there are. I am interested in the formal aspects of portraiture and still-life; the geometry and system of delivering information in those specific stylistic conventions. I see them as a sort of marketing platform. Before i became engaged, and engorged, in Old Master's painting i was doing basic surrealism, using a lot of automatic drawing but without any compositional constraints.
THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN REX VAN MITTEN IS A COMBUSTION OF TRADITIONAL PORTRAITURE WITH A CONTEMPORARY TWIST AND MANY MANY CUPS OF COFFEE.WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM AS HE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOVE.HE WAS NICE ENOUGH TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS.