Exhibition opens Saturday October 19th and runs to November 12, 2024
Artist reception, Saturday October 19th 11 AM - 2:30 PM
Artists Statement
Inspired by the magic of a moment, Paul Chester explores the emotions and sensory power of a scene in time through his landscape works. Like a song, he takes viewers through an emotional journey, sharing a moving story, which is told through the rhythms and beats of his brush.
Paul’s training was not exclusively formal; in his early years, his creative gene was unleashed by his parents who were also artists. They both painted and his mother also sculpted, inspiring Paul to take up painting when he was nineteen with his father’s old paint set. Although he mostly paints, he also enjoys sculpting whimsical figures.
He enrolled in the school, “Art’s Sake” in 1981/82 and flourished through various art courses. He attended the Academy St. Roch in Paris, France in 1982, studying there for eight months. Here, he gained inspiration from the many public art museums. After his training in France, Paul returned to Toronto, his home-city, to expand his artistic studies and further develop his craft. By 1983, Paul started exhibiting professionally and several years later, was accepted with advance standing to attend OCA, now OCADU, where he received his art degree in the Sculpture Installation Program.
Paul Chester in his studio
Over the years, Paul developed a masterful collection of landscape paintings, intertwining both his formal training and personal explorations. He also established a style that fuses his two aesthetic interests: the serenity of impressionism and the expression of color and line. The hints of expressionist sentiments in his work are an instinctive reflection of his memory. His landscapes represent his memory of places, providing an interpretation of them through his dreamy recollection of their feel and experience. Each landscape painting is merely a suggestion of a scene that captures its movement and texture, turning the space into a visual song. Throughout most of his landscape paintings, Paul integrates the motif of the horizon. This mysterious sense of abyss becomes the centre of his ethereal atmospheres.
Although each of Paul’s works appear seamlessly unified in color and composition, he never pre-plans his landscapes before executing them. Rather, Paul perceives his craft as a discovery process, where he may playfully navigate through his senses, reacting to his impulses to develop the scene. This approach creates a meditative correspondence between himself and the painting, between artist and canvas.
*Painting above: "Approaching Winter" Oil on Canvas 40" h x 48" w $3500.00