Peter Jacob Christ
“Peter’s paintings convey his cheerful sense of humor and love of color through the representation of old street signage and everyday objects. Not only is his draftsmanship exquisite, but his sense of composition consistently creates for interesting and compelling pieces that reflect the wit and intellect of the artist. Peter is a prolific painter whose work, though representational, portrays an uncanny and curious abstract quality that insists that the viewer pause and reconsider what in fact it is that the painting represents.“
- Kathy Wright, Sculptor
ARTIST STATEMENT
Driving and Painting, Driving and Painting
I enjoy the act of painting. I enjoy driving. I also feel like I’m collecting bits of “culture” that we gather as we drive throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Puerto Rico… wherever our travels take us. What draws my eye are the bold signs and scenes that pop up on the road - My wife and I are constantly taking photos of these happy surprises.
Back in the studio, my paintings are often a mashup of many different elements that we’ve collected - signs, symbols, words, people, birds, and colors etc. I prep my work with thumbnail sketches, shreds from our photographs, and then multiple layers with variations in Photoshop. But when I get to working on the canvas itself, I’m often arranging and rearranging these elements into the final puzzle of my paintings.
Of course, fundamentally, what interests me in painting is the use of elegant lines, interesting shapes with strong positive and negative spaces, and bold colors. And conventionally, I want my paintings to work at a distance, in the middle ground, and in close-up.
Most of the time this leads to my paintings having what I think of as a playful reality. They are more an expression of my response to all these bits and pieces rather than a photorealistic depiction.
Too often, I find the signs and scenes I’ve used as the basis for my paintings have been destroyed shortly after I've completed the paintings. Either by development or by accident. Perhaps I’m a curse.
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Peter Jacob Christ attended Syracuse University (BFA), studied painting at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London, and traveled through Europe before moving to New York. He earned a master’s degree from New York University (MA). Teachers that inspired him include the figurative painter Jerome Witkin and the pop artist/photo-realist Idelle Weber. He lives and works in New Hartford, CT.
Peter is represented by Alofft Gallery in Litchfield, CT and Define Gallery in Sarasota, FL.