Chris Stoffel Overvoorde - Oils

Landscapes "are a response to the technical problems of the landscape, or, actually, the cloudscape....I see in clouds their heavenly, cosmic aspect.  They give me a feeling of smallness. Many of my paintings have been very large, because in that way you become a participant in the painting. You actually experience a shrinkage; you become small in front of the vastness of the canvas."
(Chris Stoffel Overvoorde in Rob Schreur, "Words and Works, Chris Stoffel Overvoorde," Dialogue (Calvin College Communications Board Art Journal) vol.17, no.7, 24)

"A dynamic circular process is set going whereby the space in the lower part of these paintings recedes slowly and deeply away from us and then returns with great power and force in the large upper part. We do not behold this dynamized space as through a window. The space where we stand looking is caught up in the dynamic. It sweeps beneath our feet into the distance and then comes back, above and over and down behind us. We are in the picture space....These are paintings of shalom. We are neither nature's aggressive conquerors nor nature's submissive moles but participants in the grandeur of nature. Not spectators, but participants."
(Nicholas Wolterstorff, "Introduction," Twenty-Five Years as an American Artist, Chris Stoffel, Grand Rapids, MI.: Calvin College, 1986.)

“The desire to create a meaningful art has no national barrier” 
(David Kung, the contemporary artist in Japan, 1966).

Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, born in The Netherlands, was trained in technical schools as a diesel mechanic.  He departed for the United States in 1957 and became a citizen in 1966.  After completing the Visual Design program at Kendall School of Design in 1960, he worked as a graphic designer.  Stoffel studied with printmaker-painter Harry Brorby from 1961 to 1963.  In 1962 he married Greta Duifhuis.  They have four children:  Sonja, Paul, Joy, and Peter.   From 1963 to 1966 he attended the University of Michigan where he studied printmaking with Frank Cassara and Emile Weddige, and painting with Bill Lewis and Alan Mullen, completing the requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Design and a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Chris Stoffel was appointed to the Art Faculty at Calvin College in 1966, he was Director of Exhibitions (1966-70 and 1972-7), and Chairman (1979-83).  He currently holds the rank of Professor of Art Emeritus.   Before retiring in 1996, he served as the Director of the Multicultural Year at Calvin College, the culmination of a long career of service to the college and the community which has included stints as a trustee for the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Arts Council, as a member of the Municipal Arts Advisory Committee and Advisory panels for the Michigan Council for the Arts. He also was Project Director for Connections:  A Baroque Festival Year, 1982-83. At Grace Christian Reformed Church he served as deacon, elder and vice-president of council, and now serves as the worship environmentalist.

In 1978 he was given a sabbatical leave to study the Nineteenth Century Dutch landscape painters.  He was granted a second sabbatical leave in 1984-5 to be the first Artist-in-Residence at Calvin College.  In 1993-4 he served again as Artist-in-Residence during his third sabbatical and produced numerous works on the Prairie based on studies done in the summer of 1993 in the Gushul Studio of the University of Lethbridge in Blairmore, Alberta. Chris was Artist-in-Residence at the Gushul Studio numerous times, most recently in July 2006.  The works in our gallery are from this highly productive period.  

Chris received his first art awards in 1962 from the West Michigan Regional Exhibit at the Muskegon Hackley Art Gallery and the Christian Art Show in Sparta, Michigan.  Since then, he has exhibited his work in more than 100 group, invitational, and juried exhibitions; received more than 30 awards, and has presented over 50 solo exhibits in the USA, Canada, and The Netherlands. His paintings, prints and drawings are present in many public and private collections including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, The Muskegon Museum of Art, Prince Corporation and Amway Corporation in the USA His work is also represented in private collections in Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, India, South Africa and Korea.

In 1997, after serving as the Director of the Multicultural Year at Calvin College, Chris retired from teaching.  In 2002 he published Passing the Colors: Engaging Visual culture in the Twenty-First Century, a wonderful commentary on art and his life.  In 2003 the Grand Rapids Art Museum hosted an extensive retrospective of his work.  Chris has completed major commissions in design and painting across the United States.  He continues to make drawings, designs, and paintings in watercolor and oil.  He recently has concentrated on landscape paintings in which space and atmosphere remain his major interest.

His paintings, prints and drawings are present in many public collections including:
Concordia College, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Doordt College, Sioux Center, IA
Redeemer College, Ancaster, ON
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Muskegon Museum of Art
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
Hackley Art Museum, Muskegon, MI
Tadlow Galleries of Fine Arts, Holland and White Hall, MI
Forsyth Galleries, Ann Arbor, MI
University of South Carolina, Columbus, SC
University of Windsor, ON
Patmos Gallery, Toronto, ON
Reformed Bible College
Grand Rapids City Hall, Grand Rapids, MI
Houghton College, Houghton, NY
Alma College, Alma, MI
Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI
Prince Corporation
Amway Corporation
His work is also represented in private collections in Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, India, South Africa, the United States, and Korea.