Christopher Willett

"The Guardian, New York City Library" Impressionist Snow Scene Oil Painting

20th Century

Christopher Willett, was born in 1959 in Bucks County Pennsylvania and is mostly known for his landscape paintings. Willett, a painter with a family lineage dating back to ancestors arriving in this country aboard the Mayflower and Victory, settling Plymouth. Some recorded family history finds a Willett ancestor, Augustine Willett whom was a Captain of historic repute under the command of General Washington. Additionally, in more recent history, Willett artisans became renowned for their designs and beautiful works in stained glass that adorn the Bryn Athen Cathedral- for the Pit Cairn estate. Willett, is also a descendant of the renowned painter Edward Hicks, known for his work entitled Peaceable Kingdom, and whom after the Hicks Art Center of Bucks County Community College was named. From early childhood to the present, Christopher has carried a natural talent on the tradition in the arts, and mainly working as a full time painter in the New Hope, Bucks County using the mediums of oil on board or canvas, and watercolor in an Impressionist style. While reviewing Christopher’s portfolio of over 3 decades, it can be appreciated a gradual evolution and development of his own unique method and artistic technique. By portraying the landscapes and daily lives of the people that live and have lived in his native local region, spanning from Bucks County, New Hope, Lambertville, New Jersey, French Town, and Point Pleasant, Willett captures the beauty and simplicity of an earlier time. With a use a color pallet of rich warm earth tones; consistent with the traditional Bucks County Impressionist style, he landscapes include elements like horse drawn carriages, families working together, villages and farms, and friends taking walks together- and many are depicted in recognizable historic settings. Christopher attended the Hartnell University in California, and Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art. He served in the U.S. Navy for 6 years aboard in an aircraft carrier and is a decorated veteran. His recent work has been compared to Edward Redfield both in subject and style. Earlier works by Willett are reminiscent of the photographic representational influence of his revered friend and mentor Andrew Wyeth. Today, Willett’s pieces, are still the most popular subject matter of local contemporary impressionists. His paintings are found in several corporate collections, and in many private collections, along many works being exhibited at shows and galleries like Phillips Mill Art Show, Village Artworks, Lahaska, PA Riverside Fine Art, Lambertville, NJ Gallery Three, Doylestown, PA.