Instead of featuring one of Paul’s masterpieces, I’m including a few of them today.  What seems like a lifetime ago (about three weeks ago) Paul was reenacting a frontier artist at the Rum River Art Center’s Artathon. The event was cut short because of COVID19, but an article about the event appeared in our local news shortly thereafter.

Paul often claims that he was born in the wrong century.  He would’ve loved being a part of the old west, the exploration, the pioneering and the entrepreneurial spirit.  Instead he was born a hundred years later, which I’m glad of because otherwise I would never have married the guy.

The thing about that older time period was there was no Instagram, no photo shop, no cameras, no selfies and no internet.  People relied on artists to depict the unexplored parts of the country for them. They also commissioned artists to paint portraits of themselves.  The beauty of unexplored landscapes are personified by Bierstadt, Russell and Seth Eastman.  There were many of them who forged their way alongside surveyors, pioneers and explorers to depict what was going on in an unexplored country.

Paul’s character is named, “Hawkeye.”  He dresses in period costume – which suits him well. He gives a short demonstration in the form of an art lesson, and then tells the story of the plein air painters that went along on excursions to discover America.

Fortunately he is still able to go outside to paint, as long as he’s six feet away from anyone else.