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, Discovering, Drawing and Painting
I like to get in the car and just drive to unknown places via less traveled routes. I’m always on the lookout to discover new images and landscapes that grab me. What frequently draws my eye are the sometimes faded but bold signs and street scenes that pop up just around the bend in the road. My wife and I are always on the lookout. Friends and family send bits they’ve spotted too.
Sometimes my paintings are focused on a single sign and it’s setting - the way light plays across the neon, the colors in the shadows it casts, the chains that suspend it from the crumbling brick work.
Other times my paintings are a mashup of many different elements I’ve collected from these road trips. Signs, symbols, words, people, birds, clouds, textures and colors etc.
What interests me most in painting is the use of elegant lines, interesting shapes with strong positive and negative spaces, and colors that are sometimes bold, sometimes subtle. And I want my paintings to work at a distance, in the middle ground, and in close-up.
I prep a piece with thumbnail sketches, bits and pieces of my photographs, and then multiple layers with variations in Photoshop. This usually leads to an under drawing on canvas where things continue to evolve, where I’m often rearranging these elements into the final puzzle of my painting.
I don’t think of my paintings as photorealistic but representational. Even a painting that looks realistic has been changed by me to express how I want to depict a scene rather than how the scene actually looked. And they also “represent” the culture I’ve lived in.
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 Idelle Weber. Peter lives and works in New Hartford, CT.
Peter is represented by Alofft Gallery in Litchfield, CT and Define Gallery in Sarasota, FL.