I’ll be in Sacramento for the reception for the show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery on Saturday, June 13th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. It’s Sacramento’s Second Saturday event, so there will be plenty to see and do!
The gallery is located at 4749 J Street:
By Christopher
Christopher Stott is a contemporary realist painter.
Open Book & Gala Apple
18″ x 24″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
• SOLD
After getting the garden in, spending more time than usual playing in the dirt and going for long walks with the kids for the past few weeks, I did manage to actually get this painting done. Now I have to buckle down and get a bunch of commissions completed. Dang, I just know the summer sunshine is going to taunt me…
New Work, June 2009 — A Slideshow
If you have the computing power and want to see the paintings included in my show in Sacramento in high resolution (so you can really scrutinize the work), click here. Below is a small version of the same thing.
Mandolin
This mandolin (20″ x 30″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009) was made in the 1890s in Sicily by Luigi Fenga. I posted a picture of me working on this painting in April here.
In 1919 a young man named Robert McPherson was serving as a medic in the Canadian 29th Infantry Battalion during WWI. He picked up this mandolin second hand in Belgium before he returned home. In 1965, as an elderly man, Mr. McPerhson befriended a young man and his family who were renting a cabin on the same property he lived on and eventually gave them the mandolin as a gift. My connection… I know the sister-in-law to the once young man in the 60s who received the mandolin from Mr. McPherson. He was kind enough to lend me it as a subject for painting.
I’m fascinated by the lineage and connected stories objects can have. It’s easy to conjure up visions of a young soldier playing the mandolin, likely one of few momentary escapes in what would have been an unimaginable time.
I did some research and found these two photographs of the 29th Battalion. There’s no way of knowing if Mr. McPherson is in these photos or knew these fellows, but they give perspective to the time, place and atmosphere.
Southwest Art Magazine – June 2009
I finally got my hands on the June 2009 issue of Southwest Art magazine… where I’m referred to as Christopher Scott. Still, I must say it is really an honor to be in the magazine! Click on the image to see it large and give it a read.
“Thank You” – Bubblegum Machine
40″ x 30″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
• SOLD
Hanging for the month of June at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento is my two-man show with Manuel Nunes.
This large bubble gum machine is in the show. I did this several months and it’ll be nice to see it again during the reception for the show, during Sacramento’s Second Saturday on June 13th. It’s been some time since I have seen my work together hanging in a space. You get such a different perspective for paintings when you see them properly lit… and not in a messy studio.
Manual of Psychology
20″ x 20″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
• SOLD
The Manual of Psychology belonged to a law student in 1905. My mother-in-law’s mother-in-law was the housekeeper for the gentleman lawyer decades after his schooling. After he passed away, she was given all his books as they were something she admired.
I have the book sitting in front of me. As I casually flipped it open, it landed on a page discussing spacial perception. One hundred and four years ago the student scrawled the word chiaroscuro beside the phrase “The play of light and shade…”. I find it curious that I’d flip open an ancient psychology text and by chance fall on a page explaining visual concepts used by artists — the use of light and shadow to create a sense of depth.
Is this book trying to tell me something?
It’s Story Time No.2
24″ x 20″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
• SOLD
This is another composition with the early 1960s children’s book, It’s Story Time. I had fun with with a triangular composition which I think works well with the overall simplicity of the shapes in my work.
My four-year-old daughter was flipping through book and was fascinated by the illustrations. She was inspired and did a little sketch of a bird and left it as a gift for me.
Underwood Typewriter
30″ x 36″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
• SOLD
I frequently visit the website Shorpy.com, which features high resolution photographs from the 1850s to 1950s. Their tag-line is true, there always is something interesting there.
I was pleasantly surprised to find these two images; the first is of the Underwood Typewriter Co.’s office in Washington, D.C. around 1919. Second photograph is the “Office Girls” from 1925. The girl on the left is hard at work on her Underwood. Click on the images to visit the site and you can find super-mega-high resolution scans with incredible detail.
The Fans
20″ x 24″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009
It turns out I have an interest in industrial design. And nostalgia. And strong geometric shapes. And icons and symbols found in everyday objects. The interests manifest themselves in paintings. Paintings that are done with a slight lean on old masters painting techniques with an emphasis on how that light falls on these objects. Recently that light has been the dependable light from a north-facing window in my house.
30″ x 36″ — Oil/Canvas — 2009