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Seeing the Light
For decades, Chip Evans (MBA 1973) was a Mad Man in Manhattan, doing account work for major Fortune 500 clients at iconic advertising agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Foote Cone Belding, and Wells Rich Green. In 1988, he founded his own New York City shop, the Idea Group, where he was CEO and creative director. "I loved the ad biz because it was full of bright, passionate people creating ideas that sell," says Evans.
Long before he became an advertising man, Evans was interested in painting and the visual arts. Starting in high school, and through college, where he took both studio and art history courses, and then all during his professional life, Evans has been studying technique and taking lessons, painting his own oils, and teaching others how to do so as well.
In retirement, he and his wife, Opal, moved to New Hampshire, where Opal opened an art gallery. When Evans's work, some of which was on display in the gallery, began outselling that of the other artists, the Evanses decided to decamp to Woodstock, Vermont, where they purchased the prestigious Gallery on the Green in 2009.
For the last 10 years, Evans has devoted himself full-time to painting. Landscapes are his most popular subject, accounting for 60 percent of what he produces. "I now do about 40 paintings a year, with around 20 percent of those being commissions," Evans says. "I'm known for barns and birches, but my painting is all about the light—I love Vermeer as the master of light. My work includes still-lifes, animal, and some human portrait work. I have sold 170 originals worldwide." Evans has also sold in excess of 1,000 limited-edition giclee prints.
One recent series of Evans paintings will be of special interest to HBS alumni: It features six familiar scenes and buildings from in and around the HBS campus, including the tower of Baker | Bloomberg and the Weld Boathouse. "What got me started on college buildings was a painting I did at Dartmouth that was purchased by former Dartmouth board chair Ed Haldeman (MBA 1972)," explains Evans. "For my HBS series, I made two trips to the School and took over 200 photos, upon which I base the paintings."
In reflecting on the HBS experience, which he enjoyed because "it taught you how to think," Evans says he found Professor C. Roland Christensen and his Business Policy course particularly inspiring. But his paintings show that the beauty of the campus itself was also an inspiration, with the School's exceptional physical and natural environment complementing and even augmenting the quality of the academic experience. Asked to choose his favorite campus locale, Evans says, "For me, it's a toss-up between facing the Baker Library steps, and looking across the river to the boathouse." Now, through Evans's paintings, alumni can relive their own on-campus memories.
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