I loved staring at the work of Canadian artist Christopher Stott, who paints retro items like cameras, fans and much more in a style that is very neat and clean. In our digital era where we are glued to screens most of the time, the artist helps us get back in touch with the materiality of the world. He also rather lovingly preserves the past.

Christopher writes: “I approach my work with a naturalistic styling and a strong sense of minimalism and order. I paint a wide variety of vintage and antique objects including typewriters, books, clocks, bubble gum machines and telephones among other common technology and appliances. As subjects, they have built-in narrative, they tell stories. And transforming them to painting creates an intimate, slower viewing experience. My hope is that in the paintings a viewer can find big picture ideas and even personal histories and stories. The straight forward compositions break the objects down to simple shapes and designs. My painting technique, adding multiple layers of paint and minute but still painterly detail, creates a near-photorealist aesthetic. I choose to paint the objects because, put simply, painting is transformative.”

Born in 1976, Christopher began a prolific and dedicated studio painting career in 2003 after graduating from the University of Saskatchewan, with High Honors and a Distinguished Exhibition. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in commercial and public galleries. He works from his in-home studio on Vancouver Island where he lives with his wife and two children. Many of his subjects he gets from a shop called Everything Old in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia.

Links: Websites (chrisstott.com, xmarksthestott.com) | Facebook (www.facebook.com/christopher.stott) | Instagram (www.instagram.com/xmarksthestott) | Twitter (@stott_art)