As you can tell, I'm pretty passionate about birds! 

As a boy, I maintained an arsenal of feeders in the back yard, made notes about the species who visited, and drew them. I wanted to be an ornithologist. One thing led to another and I eventually earned my MFA in painting and spent 32 years as an art educator, while also maintaining my studio practice and professional gallery career. I have shown my work in galleries throughout the Pacific Northwest and in New York.

Birds have played a dominant role in my painting exhibitions over the past twenty years. My paintings are not field guide illustrations, rather they are bird-centric fine art works and portraits of birds in which I hope to engender emotion, memory, and empathy. I am deeply concerned for our planet’s ecological health and future. Through my muted color palette, my use of taxidermy specimens, my quotations of past eras of bird illustration, my nods to art historical periods, my suggestions of historical architecture, and my observations of east European flea market relics, I hope these pieces evoke moods and associations, harken bygone epochs and Zeitgeist. Depicting endangered and extinct birds alongside common birds with my brand of mark-making and surface effects, I aim to portray my avian subjects as somewhat vulnerable and fragile. 

“Portland’s ‘put a bird on it’ mentality, receives a firm rebuke in the hands of painter Christopher Shotola-Hardt, whose avian imagery is the product of careful  observation, deep appreciation and empathy. Never mere decoration, birds are both muse and indicator species for Shotola-Hardt, whose paintings combine complex visual references to art history, religion, architecture, decorative arts, and ecology.”            — Merridawn Duckler 

My art business has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.