Tagged antique

The Way To Win

The Way To Win Book II Painting by Christopher Stott
The Way To Win II / 18 x 36 / oil on canvas

I found this book, The Way To Win, and had to add it to my little late 19th Century library of books that reveal the way our people were thinking just over 100 years ago. The book is a very detailed, very long self-help style book from a John T. Dale.

The Way To Win Book I Painting by Christopher Stott
The Way To Win I / 18 x 36 / oil on canvas

After browsing through the chapters, I’m left to wonder if anyone who picked up the book in 1891 found success as they went chapter by chapter and tried to structure a meaningful, successful life.

The thing that I find interesting is how this book reads and seems so much like modern-day self help. It’s all here, published 125 years ago. You can find all of this being self-published on countless blogs or YouTube channels today. I wonder if John T. Dale would have found an audience if he was one of those numbers today?

The Way To Win by John T. Dale
The Way To Win by John T. Dale
The Way To Win by John T. Dale
Learn to Say No / The Way To Win by John T. Dale
The Way To Win by John T. Dale
The Uses of Adversity / The Way To Win by John T. Dale
The Way To Win by John T. Dale
Be Kind / The Way To Win by John T. Dale

Rows and Stacks of Cameras

Four Vintage Cameras Oil Painting by Christopher Stott
Four Vintage Cameras / 20 x 40 / oil on canvas

This will sound sentimental, but who cares. I like the thought of how exciting these cameras would have been to a kid who received it as a gift. Back when photography took time, it would have seemed magic. I like the thought that these lenses were the eyes on so many events.

Ten Vintage Cameras Oil Painting by Christopher Stott
Ten Vintage Cameras / 24 x 36 / oil on canvas

And then there is the fact I can present these objects in such an orderly way. The four cameras are all 3/4 turned, facing to the right. These black cubes, such simple shapes, with the circular flash from the unique Spartus camera. The stack of ten cameras makes a small architectural structure, each with a different facade. The box cameras with their shining brass art deco designs, the different materials used. Composing the cameras this way adds a structure and order.

The materials, their designs, the history and story, their utility as image making tools, cameras are deserving of a portrait.

I have been painting cameras for well over a decade. You can see 40 paintings of cameras I’ve done on good old Flickr.

As with many of my recent paintings, the subjects were found at Everything Old in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.

Crafted Kodaks

Two Antique Kodaks oil Painting by Christopher Stott
12 x 24 / oil on canvas

These elegant and finely detailed antique Kodak cameras are works of art on their own. They have a patina about them. Cameras are now and always have been ubiquitous – but some were made to stand out. These cameras have lost their function, but now exist as sculpture and ideals of craftsmanship.

These two paintings are part of my July 2015 exhibition at the Elliott Fouts Gallery.

Antique Kodak Oil Painting by Christopher Stott
16 x 16 / oil on canvas
Antique Kodak oil painting by Christopher Stott