|
Paul Chester
artwork
b. 1956
Canadian artist Paul Chester combines both painting and sculptural elements in his unique works of art. With oil as his primary medium, Chester builds the surfaces of his canvases with many layers of paint and glazes, thereby crafting intricate, tactile landscapes. The skillful cultivation of paint allows him to shape the canvas by scratching and carving lines on the surface, sometimes exposing the ground beneath the paint. This approach forms grasses, tress and shrubs and serves as a means of providing a rich abstract surface texture. The physicality in the treatment of these canvases is closely connected to Chester's sculptural experience and sustained relationship with his natural surroundings. Employing a seemingly infinite array of colors, detail, texture and light, Paul Chester suggests "the many colors of the changing season inspire my work- from the muted tones of a rainy day, to the colorful vibrancy of a summer garden."
Paul Chester's painting within a painting style recalls Post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat, who painted "borders" in an Impressionist style around his pointillist images, adjusting the colors of the borders to contrast or coalesce with the colors inside the picture plane. Unlike the Impressionist painters, however, Chester decidedly does not paint open air, i.e. en plein air. His pastoral scenes are poetic expressions that seek to capture the beauty of the terrain begotten from sometimes a flash of memory or a pursuant dream. Chester notes, "the subjects of my oil paintings are restful places and retreats found in the natural landscape – country fields, flowers, rolling hills, forests, horizons, cloud formations, and waterscapes. These impressions are painted from memory – they are my visual diaries; peaceful mementos celebrating beauty."
By capturing the essence of a still lake at sunset, a field of grasses waving in the summer breeze, or the dazzling colors of a forest in autumn, Chester triumphs to reveal his own recollections of the 45 acres of woodland surrounding his home in Ontario, Canada. While each work stands alone in its intimate portrayal of the conjured memory of the artist's natural world, the luminosity that highlights the individual landscapes is the essential element that threads Chester's works together, creating a powerful and unforgettable exhibition at Newbury Fine Arts.
PAUL CHESTER OCAD, SCA, FCA
AWARDS:
1991 Best Sculpture: The Station Gallery, Whitby, Ontario
1990 Loomis & Toles Award: Best Sculpture, Scarborough, Ontario
1989 Best Sculpture: The Station Gallery, Whitby, Ontario
EDUCATION AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
2002 Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists
1992
OCAD (Advanced Standing) Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1991
OCAD (Advanced Standing) Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1990 OCAD (Advanced Standing) Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1982 Academy St. Roch, Paris, France.
1982 Arts Sake, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Member of the Society of Canadian Artists
1981 Arts Sake, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Member of the Society of Canadian Artists
CATALOGUE/REVIEWS/PUBLICATIONS:
2010 Exhibition Catalogue, Newbury Fine Arts, Boston, MA USA
2009 Peterborough Examiner, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2005 Return, Exhibition Catalogue, Gallery Gevik, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2003 Beyond the Natural Landscape, The Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2002 Parcours, L'Informateur des arts, Autumn Issue, Vol. 8 #3
2002 Peterborough Examiner, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 12/02
2002
Recent Paintings (Catalogue Brochure)
2001 Recent Paintings (Catalogue Brochure)
1998 Luminous Skies: Recent Paintings by Paul Chester
1998 Peterborough Examiner, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, gbgb August/98
1995 Magazin' Art, Fall Issue
1995 Charting the Land: Recent Paintings by Paul Chester (Catalogue)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2018 Art Gallery of Bancroft, Landscape Reflections, Bancroft, Ontario, Canada
2018 Art Gallery of Bancroft, Landscape Reflections, Bancroft, Ontario, Canada
2016 Wallack Galleries, Landscape Poetry - Between the Real and The Imagined, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2011 Wallack Galleries, The Luminous Landscape, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada
2010 Newbury Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
2009 Gallery Gevik, "Miles Away", Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2008 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2008 Gallerie Le Royer, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2006 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2006 Argyle Fine Art, Halifax, Nova Scotia
2005 Gallery Gevik, "Return", Toronto, Ontario, Cananda
2004 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2004 West End Gallery, "Corina's Garden," Victoria, B.C., Canada
2004 Galerie Le Royer, Montreal, Quebec
2003 West End Gallery, "Seasons", Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2003 The Art Gallery of Peterborough, "Beyond the Natural Landscape", Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
2003 Teodora Art Gallery, "Landscape Passages", Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2002 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2002 Art & Soul Gallery, Pickering, Ontario, Canada
2001 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2001 West End Gallery, Victoria, B.C., Canada
2000 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2000 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1999 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1999 West End Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1998 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1998 West End Gallery. Victoria, B.C., Canada
1998 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
1997 Teodora Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1996 West End Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1996 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
1995 The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Lindsay, Ontario, Canada
1991 Toronto International Art Exhibition (Art Expo), Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1987 Gallery St. Luke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1985 Here and Now Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1983 David Jean Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
SELECTED JURIED AND GROUP EXHIBITONS:
2010/11 Beacon Fine Arts Gallery, New Jersey
2002/09 SCA Integration Show, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Chameleon Nation, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Wallak Galleries, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada
Meta 4 Gallery, Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
Newbury Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
Argyle Fine Art, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Gallery Gevik, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wynne/Falconer Gallery, Chatham, MA, USA
The Whistler Art Galleries, Whistler, B.C., Canada
Galerie Le Royer, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Rendez-vous Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Opening Night Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Trinity Galleries, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada
The Railings Gallery, London, England, UK
Gail Harvey Gallery, Santa Monica, CA USA
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
The Edward Day Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
1995 Cygnet Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Russell Gallery of Fine Art, Lindsay, Ontario, Canada
James Baird Gallery, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
The Station Gallery, Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Marble Arch Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Kitchner/Waterloo Gallery, Kitchner, Ontario, Canada
The Cure Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA
Galerie Beaux Arts, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1989 Art Dialogue Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Gallery
Del Bello Gallery (Int. Miniature Exhibition) Toronto, Canada
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Grace Gallery of Fine Art, Whitby, Ontario, Canada
The Station Gallery, "The Human Element", Whitby, Ontario, Canada
1987 The Station Gallery, Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Uxbridge Celebration of the Arts, Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada
Art Alive Gallery, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
The Latchman Gallery, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
|
