Welcome to Condren Galleries where I offer a wide variety of Art ranging for skyline paintings and watercolors to house portraits with note cards. As a professional artist graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I majored in Drawing and Painting, I have made it the priority of my career to be creative, reflective, and insightful when at work on my Art. Below are areas of Fine Art that I specialize in.

Drawings: Drawing has always been a strength for me ever since I was a small child, as a boy in the Second Grade the teachers were amaze and how realistic and natural my work was coming from a 7 year old. At that age I was doing portraits and landscapes using pencil and pen and adapting to in ingenious method of line movement to create the effect of trees and bushes. I often did self-portraits as a child and have continued the practice to his day. Drawing to me is primordial and reveals the soul of the artist, for much like poetry drawings are spontaneous and come deep from within you. I excel in pen & ink drawings as well as any kind of pencil or graph medium.

Watercolors: Very close to my love of drawing is of course watercolor painting for it is the stepchild of drawing. Often I will do watercolors with only a brush; however, I prefer to work watercolors with pen & ink to bring out the detail and spirit of the subject. I like to keep the line work clear and crisp while at the same time making the watercolor loose and fresh so that the tones flow with the water that they are in.

Oils: Oil paintings are a deep love for me and I can express so much of how I feel by working with them, for unlike drawings and watercolor oils have a deep rich tone that cannot be match by the other medium. The thing that I like to do most with oils is to work with light, as you can see from looking at my landscapes many of them are sunsets where I work the tones of the glowing sun as it sets. My favorite artists in oils are the Barbizon School painters and my favorite among them is Daubigny. Vincent Van Gogh is an inspiration for me in the context of his pulsating, vibrating works; however, my execution of subject is much different than his.

Cityscapes: A favorite subject of mine is the city, from common views of city streets to towering skyscrapers I like to do it all. As a boy I have always had a deep love for Architecture and growing up in Chicago was a wonderful resource for observing great Architecture. Chicago skyline paintings were my first attempt at watercolor architectural renderings for building contractors and architects. Also, I had the great fortune as a boy to be the son of James C. Condren who owned and operated Favor Ruhl & Watson, the largest art supply store in the country at that time. I have everything that I ever want when it came to art supplies and materials. My father always encouraged me in Art and on weekends would send me to classes at the American Academy headed by my dad's friend Mr. Young and the Art Institute of Chicago where I came to graduate years later. Cityscape art and drawings, be it from the grand views of Michigan Avenue overlooking the Art Institute or simple street scenes of people coming and going to work, is a pleasure to create and offers much in catching a glimpses of life in urban settings.

House Portraits: House Portraits and drawings of your home have always been of interest to me, from the great houses and mansions of Europe and America to the humble dwellings of farms in rural America. The house is our home and what we do and think is all done there, so what place cold be more important? As the old saying goes "Be it ever so humble there is no place like home". Realtors and brokers have called on me for years to do house portraits as closing gifts for their clients and this make good sense because it makes for the prefect closing gift. One item that is very popular with Realtors and individuals alike are note cards of their home, especially for those that just bought their home. What could be a more personal and joyful way to share your new home with others than writing them on stationary with a watercolor painting of your home on the front of the note card?

Perfect for Christmas, birthday, and Holiday gifts, my Fine Art offerings in any of the genres above are a sensible and sound purchase both for aesthetic as well as personal reasons. Please take some time and look through my Website and see all that I have to offer. The artwork comes matted or framed in black or white as you can see from the photograph above. Also, note cards of any work of art in my gallery is available for sale, simply navigate to the work of art that you like and put it's reference number on the note pad provided to you in the Shopping Cart at check out. If you do not see anything that you are looking for I am available for commissions. If you should have any questions please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Stephen F. Condren ~ Artist