Chad Cole

Artist’s Statement

CHAD COLE – “Land and Lore”

lore1
/lôr/
noun
• a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.

I paint because of an unceasing desire to understand, preserve, and process my lived experiences and memories. My work is about place identity and the stories and beauty I encounter while exploring the Southern landscape. The oil paintings that I create are influenced by Southern literature, regional art, and my experiences traveling the rural roads of the Southeast. I paint things that are odd, abandoned, and/or disappearing because of a need to find connection and meaning to the past.

Tone, light, and atmosphere are two of my primary concerns when I am working on a painting. I use a combination of waxes and glazes in my pictures to heighten the effects of light responding to the surface of the canvas. I prefer using a palette of earth tones and achromatic color to emphasize shadow and light.

My paintings are composed with an overarching desire for balance in the position of objects, shapes, and edges as they relate to the size and format of the canvas. I am fascinated by the work of Poussin and Cezanne, and I strive to design pictures with a similar regard for the function of measurement and geometry in the composition.

The exhibition, “Lands and Lore,” brings together a diverse array of oil paintings and prints which all share some aspect of the Southern experience: a story, a symbol, or a sense of place.

Biography

Chad Cole is a painter inspired by the Southern landscape. He has spent nearly two decades traveling the back roads of the Southeast and painting the rural areas of Appalachia, the Piedmont, and the Low Country. His painting styles and methods have slowly evolved over time, but the exploration of place identity in his work has remained ongoing. Chad is drawn to landscapes that are characterized by abandoned agrarian architecture, unique roadside oddities, historical battlefields and forgotten settlements, and beautiful mountain ridges and streams.

Chad’s paintings capture a sense of place while exploring memories, stories, and cultures of the South. The artist is interested in the interplay of light and shadow both in the landscape and on the canvas, and he uses tonality to exaggerate and imbue the work with a heightened sensation of atmosphere and pictorial richness. Paintings are created using a palette of traditional pigments and earth tones, and the artist alternates mediums of oils and waxes to render and layer the colors. The layering results in paintings that transmit, absorb, and reflect natural light to deliver an unique visual experience for the audience.

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