Paul Chester

Paul Chester
Title: The Lake in November Date: 2023
Medium: oil on canvas

Tour Stop: 26

About the artist:

Inspired by the horizons, waterscapes, 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. Paul studied painting and sculpture in Toronto and Paris, and graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1992.

Using oil as his primary medium, 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 layers beneath. Luminosity is the essential element that threads Chester’s works together. His paintings are not individually derived from specific locations but rather, are suggested fragments of recollection; glimpses of memory. Paul Chester has had 37 solo exhibitions and over 45 group shows across Canada, the United States and London, England, and is currently represented by 10 galleries.

“I am inspired by my natural environment: country fields, flowers, rolling hills, forests, horizons, cloud formations, and waterscapes. My paintings are emotional responses to, or poetic expressions of, what I see in the area that surrounds my home and studio. Somewhat ethereal in nature, images of landscapes and water are painted mostly from memory to reflect the experience of that moment. I enjoy using oil paint because it lends itself to being scraped and scratched to reveal the colours beneath.” – Paul Chester

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