Joseph Christopher Morel was born in 1958 in rural Maryland. Encouraged by his parents with paper, pencil, paints and brushes, Chris pursued his artistic interests at a very early age. His father was an X Ray tech and would bring home sheets of yellow paper that were used to separate X-ray film. These were his first sketch books.
 
The verdant rolling farmland and rustic structures nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains offered powerful inspiration and the subject matter for his earliest work.
 
As a young man working outside on farms he was fascinated with the forms and shapes of the landscape. The atmospheric moods of his Mid-Atlantic homeland were embedded into his psyche inspiring him to pursue an artist’s life.
 
Chris graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Towson University in the Baltimore area and immediately began working in the printing industry as a graphic artist. He was impressed with the complexity and structure of creating publications from concept to a final printed product. He became art director at a Washington DC based printing firm. He was also pursuing his musical interests in bands as a guitarist playing in and around the Baltimore area.
 
In 1985 Morel moved to Austin Texas taking a position with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as a staff illustrator all the while painting in his studio at home. The illustrator position allowed Chris to illustrate in many different mediums ranging from watercolor, airbrush, oil, acrylic, pencil etc.
 
In 1988 Morel decided to leave the TPWD and pursue a full-time career as a painter. In Austin Morel began his fine art career primarily as a watercolorist, transitioning eventually to oils as his primary medium.
 
1994 he moved with his family to Taos and opened the Morel Gallery next to the Historic St. Francisco de Asis Church in Ranchos de Taos, NM. Upon arriving in Taos, Morel began to paint primarily outside, on location in the spectacular Northern NM high desert region. The massive scale of the Taos landscape, the rich artistic tradition of the Taos Society painters and the legendary Taos light provided the best environment for his continued development as an artist.
 
The tall peaks of the Rockies in New Mexico, Colorado and north through Montana, the canyons and mesas of Utah and Arizona to the west, and the Oak covered hills of California have been a source of much of Chris’s work. Morel has also painted extensively throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Northeast, into Mexico and abroad capturing the landscapes of the regions and celebrating the incredible experience of the “artist” life.

Read the article on Chris Morel as previously published in The Taos News J. Chris Morel at Chimayo Trading >>

On the cover of January’s Plein Air Magazine, Chris Morel represents the best of New Mexico’s painters and speaks to his mindset while painting in the article about him. The fascinating psychology of an artist and cultural creative involves more than just finding beauty in the landscape of Northern New Mexico.

Read the full story Landscapes by Chris Morel >>