2011
Acrylic
24" x 36"
$400

This painting was made by combing a few photographs that I've taken while out for walks in the countryside. Where I live, (as in most of Chatham-Kent), it is very flat, so finding decent landscapes is hard. I used a picture of my neighbour and put him into a dusky sky. It made me feel that maybe this farmer, clearly in his later years, who would be retiring soon after many a long day of hard work, may not have too many walks home left. I like this idea juxtaposed with the background as the sun, after putting in endless hard day's work, is about ready to retire for the night as well.

Artists' statement:
My two passions in life are art and sciences. I love having the cold, methodical, logic and rationality of science as a career, but I also love having the spontaneity, irrationality, creativity and expressiveness in art as a hobby. They allow me to completely escape each world, if I so please, so that neither becomes tedious and boring. I believe this is a big reason why my two favourite and influential movements have been the Renaissance and Impressionism. I enjoy studying the systematic techniques and precision of the Renaissance masters, yet the Impressionist masters grant me the permission to use bold, unrealistic colours and be more dynamic in my strokes.
I simply enjoy painting for painting's sake. I have no philosophy for my painting style, except to feel the pure enjoyment and sheer exhilaration of the process of putting colour to canvas and having something to look at in the end. I just want to have fun. I like painting scenes of my everyday urban and rural life, and scenes of how I visualize my understandings of scientific phenomena.


Artist's Biography:
Brett Wells was born and raised in Chatham, and attended Wilfrid Laurier and Waterloo University studying Honours Fine Arts, and graduated from St. Clair College with a diploma in Medical Laboratory Sciences. Brett has been drawing and painting since about the age of three and has never let up. He has had great academic success throughout his schooling, once earning the award for having the highest grade in OAC (grade 13) art at Ursuline College in 2000. He lives with his wife, Julia, and their new daughter, Scarlett, just outside of Chatham.
Although he hasn't pursued a career in art, instead teaching and tutoring mathematics and health sciences at St. Clair College, Thames Campus, he still manages to paint or draw upwards of 30 hours a week. In the past few years, he has sold over a hundred works, been commissioned to create murals, been selected for the 2010 Eye for Art exhibition at Thames Art Gallery, had an essay published and has designed a couple tattoos for friends and family.
Self-taught, most of Brett's earlier work was in pencil and oils, but in the past two years has begun to experiment and work more with acrylic mediums.
His hobbies outside of visual arts have include: Reading science textbooks, classics and the odd work of fiction, cooking, playing guitar and writing music, wood working, creative writing, maintaining an herb garden, brewing beer, and taking his baby out for long walks while his wife knits.

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