Painting Demo and talk by Paul Pedulla: graphic minimalist

     The Chelmsford (MA) Art Society presented Paul Pedulla (a native son) last night.  What a charming, unassuming fellow!  

     He had already done a lot of his painting:  the composition and major shapes.  It is for a gallery assignment on the subject "7".  Paul picked a building with that address in the town where the gallery is.  He reasoned that would allow him to do an isolated building (a preferred subject) in a simplified, graphic style (also preferred).

     He paints with acrylics because he wanted to be more "green" and avoid the smells and fumes that can accompany oils.

 I'm sure there were some audience members who wanted him to DO MORE PAINTING.  We had to be satisfied with a couple of lines indicating shadows of eaves, some black shapes for windows, and some highlighting for reflections in those windows.

 I think everyone was in agreement that sometimes you have to rotate your painting to get a good angle for hand and brush.

 What was most astonishing to me was the upward trajectory of his painting successes, recognition and sales.
He took a class in 2006, met a gallery owner in 2007 by accidentally including her in a casual party at his house in Maine, was written up in a popular Massachusetts art magazine in 2008, was next discovered by an "art scout" resulting in representation at Serena and Lily (described as an Upscale Pottery Barn),  and he has been off and running ever since.

He admitted that his earlier professional life involved free-lance copy editing for well known Masachussetts corporations, and international real-estate building projects.  I'm thinking that knowing what to include and what to leave out served him well while writing as much as it does when painting.

Encouraging story!