Edmond Rochat works with a subdued palette and moody perspective to depict the beauty and mystery in transitory, commonplace moments. His quiet interior scenes exude an atmosphere of contemplative restlessness.  His interest in the often overlooked moments of contemporary life comes from a desire to de-familiarize the ordinary so as to bring the viewer into a thoughtful interaction with the people, places and objects of everyday encounters. Always observing, Edmond is never without a sketchbook. Though only a fraction of these visual notes may ever develop into finished works, he considers the act of sketching to be part of an ongoing dialogue between visual experience and potential meanings.

 

Edmond studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the duCret School of Art, the Art Students League of New York and the Janus Collaborative School of Art, where he also supplemented his studies as a lab assistant for advanced artistic anatomy as hosted by the Drexel University School of Medicine. Edmond received the Mary Elizabeth Scholarship from the New Jersey Society of Arts and Letters, The Dr. Furman Fink Award from the duCret School of Art and the Chairman's Award from the Salmagundi Club's Junior/Scholarship members show.  He was also awarded a grant from the John F. and Anne Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund, which he used to study Greek and Renaissance sculpture at the Slater Memorial Museum.  His works have appeared in the journal Persimmon Hill and published in The Visual Language of Drawing: Lessons on the Art of Seeing (Sterling, 2012). He has taught at The Art Students League of New York and The Teaching Studios of Art in Oyster Bay, LI.