Artist Statement/Photos
Paul Chester – Biography
Inspired by the horizons, water scenes, and rolling hills that surround his studio in southeastern Ontario, the contemporary landscapes of Paul Chester are in the tradition of Canada’s impressionists, though tempered by a modern sensibility.
The fleeting, translucent vision demonstrates Chester’s extraordinary relationship with nature. His paintings are hazy, almost dream-like and meditative, as if they are dug-up afterthoughts of emotion.
With oil and acrylic as his primary mediums, Chester builds the surfaces of his wood panels and canvases with many layers of paint and glazes. The physicality in the treatment of these canvases is closely connected to Chester’s sculptural experience and sustained relationship with his natural surroundings. Lines are often scratched and carved into the paint, exposing the ground beneath.
The luminosity that highlights the individual landscapes is the essential element that threads Chester’s works together. His paintings are not individually derived from specific locations but are rather suggested fragments of recollection, glimpses of memory. Chester notes, “the subjects of my oil paintings are restful places and retreats found in the natural landscape – country fields, flowers, forests, horizons, clouds and waterscapes. These impressions are painted from memory, expressing the emotional experience of that moment – they are my visual diaries; peaceful mementos celebrating beauty”.
He has had 38 Solo Exhibitions and over 45 Group Shows across Canada, the United States and London, England and is currently represented by 6 galleries.
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