Chris Watts

(British, born 1947)

Artist Chris Watts’ work explores patterns and systems. He often uses numbers, grids, and spiral, diagonal, and horizontal forms. Viewers are drawn to interpreting and unraveling the system – trying to figure them out like a puzzle. Watts is interested in and influenced by Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, theosophy, sound, and the geometrical tradition in art. He notes, “the final question for me has always been 'Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed?'"

Watts earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1969) from Goldsmith’s College School of Art in London, England, and a Master of Fine Arts (1971) from Ohio University. He taught art at several colleges in England before moving back to the U.S. to be the Chair of the Art Department at Cornish College of Art (1978-1984) in Seattle. He taught painting and drawing at Washington State University in Pullman, Eastern Washington, for 27 years (1988-2015).