After painting portraits and figurative works for 20 years, Chris Kolupski realized that the most impactful moments of his career were related to painting outdoors. In a moment of inspiration, he envisioned himself taking students around the world with him to share the experience and Paint Out West was born. October 2025 will mark the five-year anniversary of this virtual painting experience. These workshops allow painters to vicariously travel and create along with Chris, from the comfort of their own studios. Chris is now developing larger paintings from the hundreds of field studies he has produced over the years. Chris began painting outdoors as a teenager in the forests of Upstate New York and Canada. After working as a freelance illustrator for five years in Rochester, Chris moved to New York City where he studied portraiture and figure painting with Nelson Shanks, Everett Raymond Kinstler and Dean Keller. In 2004 Chris founded Boxart Street Atelier in Rochester, New York, where he taught painting for almost a decade. He now conducts live and virtual workshops across the American West. “There is nothing like painting roaring waterfalls or sun baked badlands. Nothing like the swoosh of a hawk slicing through a canyon updraft as I try to capture fleeting effects of light.” https://www.chriskolupski.com/about