No Starving Artist Here : Someone is painting the great chefs of Los Angeles. Now, he’s attracting notice--and some just desserts.

Kent Kachigian bounds through his Los Feliz area apartment pointing to the bright watercolors that occupy much of the available wall space.

“The guy who’s biting the rabbit leg, that’s Joachim Splichal, the chef at Patina on Melrose,� he says. “There aren’t many guys who can put game on the menu, but he can.�

In another watercolor, a brooding chef Claude Sigal scatters chives over a plate of pasta.

“Sigal was at the Picnic, but I think he’s moved,� Kachigian says. “He made a great lobster ravioli.�

Kachigian, 33, speaks with the earnest intensity of a man hoping to make a match on “Love Connection.� His dark brows bounce with excitement as he provides a running commentary about the chefs he has painted after trips into the kitchens of some of Southern California’s most exclusive restaurants.

Becoming court artist to restaurant royalty was not quite what Kachigian had in mind when he graduated from San Diego State University in 1983 with a degree in economics and took a job as a stockbroker.

“(But) being a stockbroker just wasn’t fun,� he says. “It just wasn’t exciting to me.�

The more unhappy he became, the more he started sketching. He had picked up the knack as a kid but never pursued it. And he kept listening to an inner voice that told him artists never succeed--at least not while they’re alive.

By 1991, Kachigian’s job had become unbearable; his marriage was disintegrating, and he turned to a counselor for advice.

“That’s when it all came out,� he says. “I always wanted to be an artist, so I’m doing it.�

Kachigian exited the marriage, quit the brokerage firm and took a job as a pharmaceutical salesman to support himself while learning his new trade. He took art classes but found the exercises boring, he says:

“I became frustrated with painting bones and things that were basically dead. So one day I came home and I opened up Julia Child’s cookbook, and I decided to paint her with some of her food.�

He turned next to an illustrated restaurant guide, looking for interesting faces and fascinating menu items. But the posed photos were just not exciting enough. He began taking his own camera into kitchens, trying to capture the controlled chaos that swirled about him.

“It’s incredible to see the energy in the kitchen of a hot restaurant,� he says. “That’s the energy I wanted to capture in them at work.�

After a few stabs at merely copying the photos, Kachigian veered in the direction of the Impressionists, becoming less concerned with accuracy than mood. Some of his portraits take on psychedelic tones: blond hair becomes a flaming red; black eyeglass frames emerge in neon green.

“There is a cartoon quality to them,� Kachigian says, “but to me, that’s just more expressive, it’s more fun.�

He says he doesn’t know how critics will respond to his unorthodox style, but says he’s heartened by the reactions of those he has painted: “The chefs I’ve done just love the idea. I’m beginning to feel a real kinship with these guys. I think of them as artists, too.�

After finishing each piece, Kachigian takes it to Joan Kleihauer, his former teacher at Barnsdall Art Center.

“When he first came here, he didn’t even know how to use water colors,� Kleihauer says, “but he listens and he grows. I think he’s working at a professional level right now.�

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In three years, Kachigian has accumulated 18 portraits and is angling for a charity art show. He thinks he’s found a potential sponsor--restaurant supplier S.E. Rykoff & Co.--after carting one painting down to its corporate offices a few months ago.

The work features Campanile chef Mark Peel with several Rykoff spice containers in the crook of his arm. A company spokesman says they are “in discussions� about the idea, but there are no firm plans.

Kachigian says he’s had several offers from his subjects to purchase the paintings, but he’s intent on keeping the portraits together, at least until they can be shown as a group. After that, he’s planning a series on African wildlife.

But not quite yet.

As his portfolio grows, Kachigian finds himself invited into more and more kitchens.

And he admits that he’s not above accepting free samples: “It’s been just amazing food. Sometimes I think the picture turns out better when I get a free meal.�

The chefs don’t seem to mind.

“I think his stuff is great,� says Lisa Stalvey, chef at the trendy Bambu restaurant in Malibu. “When he first approached me about (a portrait), he showed me some of the others he’s done. I know these guys and he really captured their personalities very well.�

Kachigian considers the portrait of Stalvey, crumbling butter into a sauce pan, a favorite.

“She is hot , she has a neat place,� he says. “She fed me a very nice Chilean sea bass with sesame seeds.�