Chris Granda began drawing as a child growing up in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents, Dr. Richard and Shirley Granda, were musically and artistically inclined and encouraged creative talents in their children. In elementary school, Chris dabbled in drawing through sketch drawings and cartoons. Some of his cartoons even made it into the local newspaper.

Chris’s initial formal training came from private lessons with a lifelong seasoned English artist, Fiona Banta. With her bucolic surroundings and throngs of cats, she tutored students in her School of Art, which concentrated in watercolor still-life studies. "As soon as I enrolled," Chris comments, "Fiona had me do copies of her classic Japanese prints. The design of these prints were mathematical, and even more so, architectural. The year or so that she had me reproduce these works of art gave me an organizational aspect that I would only recognize years later. She had a concise idea of how to lay an artistic format for the ideas of young students. She was truly a remarkable woman."

In middle school, Chris worked more than the usual student in the art department. He created murals on school walls under the watchful eyes of art teachers John Schoenberg and Mike Ghee. "I knew them through my older brother, Tom, who's a sculptor today." Chris says of this experience, "They suggested these projects for me on top of my regular class work. Other kids had drawn and painted murals, which were all over the school. I wanted to do a few, and they let me. I was always there in the art department during study halls and lunch, trying to learn more about art, and music. We would discuss other artists and ideas about the process of doing art. Beyond art class, John and Mike were creative carpenters. They had good ideas about how to start, work on, and finish an extensive project. They helped me gain confidence in taking on large-scale art works."

Chris enrolled at SUNY Purchase in the autumn of 1986. "One of the biggest perks was that I had my own studio. I took classes in painting as a directive, but my drawing classes further steered me toward linear outlook." After two years, he found that watercolors presented the challenge that he was looking for. "A very demanding concentration," he recalls. Chris focused in large watercolors for his senior project, the bright colors presenting a bit of a splash, with the primary basis lying in illustration. "The application within a chosen area creates a world in and of itself. Then, in unison, they fall together. I couldn't believe how vibrant the gouache and watercolors jumped out at the show," he remembers of his senior project.

"I actually didn't go to my senior show. It took place on a Sunday afternoon, and I was a starter on my school's Ultimate Frisbee team, the Atomic Dogs, that weekend. I had done numerous T-shirt designs for the teams’ many tournaments. We had been undefeated that Saturday at Yale, and I felt that playing was just as important as the show; my paintings were already done anyway," Chris says regarding the weekend. "Training on that team was intensive, and it gave me even more of an appreciation about what it takes to be serious about an endeavor—especially about having a plan. It translated well in my approach to art. I got an A for my senior concentration and the Atomic Dogs won a hard-fought tournament also."

After college, Chris worked for a successful print house in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It was a great experience. I couldn't believe the artwork in the owner's private collection. Magritte, Picasso, Miro.... He had impeccable taste." Chris’s job entailed art handling, as well as a significant amount of art restoration. "Watercolor fit the restoration agenda. Water lets you fix mistakes, and you always approach restoration from an aspect of reversal."

Ever ready for adventure, Chris left his native New York for Chicago to work for a corporation with a large art collection. Apart from doing creative research and product work for an art-driven licensing subsidiary, he worked for a close-knit unit of art lovers, including David Oates and curator Barbara Hoffman. Together they put on dozens of shows from New York to Japan that featured local Chicago artists and internationally known artists and illustrators, many of whose works had never been previously shown in public.

"I learned what it takes to produce a good art show, both from the creative and curatorial sides of the art world, as well as the inevitable business aspects within the art world," he adds. "It was an invaluable experience ... to research, find, and curate so much creative work was inspiring to me as an artist. I handled scores of works by painters, illustrators, sculptures, and authors whose styles and genres were extraordinarily diverse. Artists from the well known, to the underground, to the unknown showed me what it means to be an individually creative person."

"I like to do portraits. It's honest stuff. I enjoy the likeness while still letting the medium do what it does naturally. Watercolor really encompasses the innocence and grace that is youth. The portrait's modest size and genteel artistic aspects are appealing to many clients, and people really seem to like the results." Always open to new challenges, he continues to explore the limits of watercolor techniques through various themes and subjects.

Chris continues to exhibit his art work at different shows and eating establishments around Chicago ... and he still plays a little Ultimate.