Christopher Stott: New Paintings

Chris Stott is part of a new generation of representational painters pushing the genre forward in fantastic ways.  At first glance, Stott’s paintings are elegantly refined compositions of objects on a monochromatic background.  But digging a little deeper, the viewer falls down a rabbit hole of symbolism very much in keeping with the tradition of the early Dutch Masters of still-life painting.

The objects Stott paints, things like vintage books, typewriters, telephones, fans, clocks, and cameras, are chosen for their beautiful designs but also for what they represent: books and typewriters are about story telling; clocks are about the passage of time; cameras are about capturing a moment; telephones are about communication. Even the time on the clocks and the angle of light in the paintings is intentional.  Stott is constructing his own stories in the paintings but he is also tapping into our memories, and in so doing creates a richly layered viewing experience.

After receiving his BFA with High Honors and a Distinguished Exhibition in 2003 from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Stott worked in the university’s photography department.  After being immersed in the rapidly changing and technical world of photography, he left to pursue painting, where the digital world was shut out and traditional oil techniques honored. For the next several years, he studied and practiced, building on his skills, and continues to do so with a prolific studio career.  Stott’s work is almost object portraiture, applying traditional still life compositions and lighting but ventures beyond time honored subject matter. With the addition of retro, vintage and antique objects like rotary telephones, typewriters, electric fans, and alarm clocks, Stott links the old with the new and applies a subtle narrative to his work, often with a quiet sense of humor.

The banal and ordinary subjects of his work are painted in a celebratory way, turning them in to icon vestiges of the not so distant past. With simple yet bold compositions set in variations of grey, neutral and white tones. The paintings have repetition, rhythm and an emphasis on the basic geometric designs of the subjects with their finger firmly on the pulse of contemporary representational art.