Profile
Magadini’s style could be called Contemporary Impressionism although the pastoral quality of his work recalls the naturalism of 19th Century American Landscape Painting. An incredible technician, Magadini is a skilled painter who has synthesized characteristics of these movements—and has even drawn from abstraction—to create his own style where the power of nature to stir the human spirit becomes paramount.
In all of his oils, Mr. Magadini takes full advantage of the medium’s wonderful qualities. No matter the size, 4”x 6” up to 30” by 40”, this work exhibits a rich painterly surface enhanced by masterful brushwork. His stated goal of “capturing the illusion of space and form while retaining a beautiful and interesting surface” is revealed in these paintings.
Magadini said, “For me, painting is not simply the replication of what the eye sees. It is the creation of an image that embodies my thoughts and feelings. These, I think, are fairly universal, and I seek to communicate and connect with viewers on that level.”
In recent years, Magadini has become known as a plein air painter. His growing popularity has brought avid collectors to galleries where his work has been exhibited worldwide. A former illustrator, Magadini’s credits include covers for Reader's Digest magazine, illustrations and promotional brochures for Reader's Digest Books, and illustrations for Guideposts, Angels, Field & Stream, Boating, Audubon, Flying, Women's Day, Scholastic Books and Zebra Books. He has designed stamps for the United Nations and the current American Heritage Series Collectors Plates for Royal Copenhagen USA. Illustrated books include Bible Life and Times; The Illustrated Dictionary of Bible Life and Times; After Jesus; A Passage to India; Great Disasters and Rodale's Naturally Great Foods Cookbook.
Christopher Magadini was born in Great Barrington, MA, in 1946, and raised in Palm Springs, CA, Los Angeles and Phoenix. After graduating from The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles in 1970, Magadini pursued commercial illustration in Stockholm, Sweden. He returned to Phoenix, AZ, where he continued working commercially. In 1975, Mr. Magadini moved to Flagstaff, AZ, to teach art at Northern Arizona State University. In 1978, he received a full fellowship to Syracuse University and came east to earn a M.F.A. degree. Thereafter, he moved to the New York metropolitan area to further his career as a free-lance illustrator.
Magadini has taught at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY, and has been a guest lecturer at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and summers in the Adirondacks.