Christopher Leith Evans was born in 1954 in Bremerton, Washington. He spent his childhood years on Long Island in the suburbs of New York City.

He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was awarded a Graduate Fellowship and taught courses in drawing. While at UCLA Evans studied with renowned figurative painters William Brice, James Valerio, Tom Wudl, and David Hockney, as well as landscape painter James Doolin.

Evans' work is represented in New York by two galleries - Fischbach and DFN. For three years starting in 2002 his "New York in the Light of Memory," a six point perspective, 360° panoramic view of the city painted on a sphere, was shown in a special exhibition space at the New York Historical Society. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith described the piece as "exhilarating."

Evans is the recipient of a Pollock­Krasner Foundation grant and a Ford Foundation Travel / Study grant and in 2004 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco. In 2006 Evans was a guest Lecturer at the University of Southern California’s Ryman Arts program.