Subsequently he spent five years working in an office before he was able to start training as an artist and gained no support from his father in this regard. Stott began his artistic career studying at Manchester Academy of Fine Arts where William Stott of Oldham was also a student and then in Paris firstly at the studio of Carolus Duran and then at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Whilst his time in Paris was one of financial hardship, it was during this time that he first exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy. In 1883 Edward Stott was making forays into the French countryside to paint at the same time as fellow artists George Clausen, Stanhope Forbes and Henry Herbert La Thangue. Back in Britain he first lived at Evesham, Worcestershire before settling at Amberley in Sussex where he lived and worked for the rest of his life, the surrounding countryside providing inspiration for his work. A life-long bachelor, he had a housekeeper at Amberley called Anne Dinnage to whom he left his cottage, studio and all his remaining paintings and drawings after his death. He also left a sum of money to the Royal Academy to support students studying there. His take on rural naturalism was particularly noted for its atmospheric effects and he was referred to as ‘the painter of the field and the twilight’. Although he did not paint his canvases outdoors in true plein air fashion, he did sketch in pencil, chalk and pastels in the open air, making written notes on the weather, light and colour, which he would then use to produce paintings in his studio.