Christopher (Chris) Hrynyk began painting as a way to counter the pressure and pace of a decades-long career as a chef in kitchens across Edmonton. As he jokes, life in the culinary world is “filled with anxiety, stress, and the occasional bout of uncontrollable rage… kidding—but not really.”

With no formal art training—unless you count elementary-school finger painting—Chris started seventeen years ago by madly scribbling in sketchbooks. Pencils and felt pens evolved into pastels, and eventually into acrylics, his preferred medium.

Those early works were linear, frenetic, and dark—friends were gifted pieces that mostly ended up in closets throughout the city. But over time, something shifted. Painting became a genuine escape, a creative outlet completely separate from food. The energy in his work grew more deliberate, more refined, and cityscapes—real or imagined—began to emerge.

Urban skylines and street scenes have been his anchor ever since, often grounded with trees woven into the foreground. Recently, familiar intersections and neighbourhood cross-streets have become a recurring source of inspiration.

Encouraged by friends and co-workers, Chris held his first show during a fall gallery walk in St. Albert, followed by a semi-permanent installation at a downtown Hair Salon. Since then, he has exhibited in numerous collective shows, participated in five Whyte Avenue Art Walks, and spent three years at the Strathearn Art Walk. In 2023, he joined the studio community at VASA (Visual Arts Studio Association of St. Albert), where he continues to paint weekly.

His work now hangs in homes and businesses across Edmonton, Calgary, Kelowna, Palm Springs, London, and New York. Chris also donates pieces and his time to charitable organizations including the University of Alberta Hospital Foundation, Sorrentino’s Compassion House, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Brian Webb Dance Company, often painting live at fundraising galas.

When he isn’t cooking or painting, Chris is usually traveling with his partner and happily eating meals in restaurants far beyond what his credit rating suggests he should be able to afford.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My work explores the energy and structure of the urban landscape through bold, expressive acrylic cityscapes. After decades in the high-pressure world of professional kitchens across Edmonton, painting became a place to redirect intensity into colour, rhythm, and motion.

What began as frenetic, untrained mark-making has evolved into a practice centred on layered lines, saturated palettes, and the interplay between abstraction and recognizable architecture. Skylines, intersections, and familiar neighbourhood cross-streets are recurring anchors, often grounded with trees woven into the foreground to soften the city’s geometry.

I paint weekly at VASA (Visual Arts Studio Association of St. Albert), where I continue to push scale, colour, and movement. My goal is not to depict a city literally, but to translate its vibration—its tension, momentum, and humour—into something that feels alive on the canvas.