Painting

History

Still Life with Shell, 1945-47, oil on canvas, 15 x 19 inches, EP-60.5

As a young man in 1944 Paul attended the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, where he studied with Sarkis Sarkisian, learned to paint, and was exposed to the works of the Impressionists, the Fauves, and the German Expressionists.

In 1947 he moved to New York, where he furthered his studies, continued to paint, and showed his work in local galleries. As part of this exciting and vibrant post-war art world, he immersed himself in the NY Abstract Expressionist art scene, and was influenced by the works of Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. His seven-year New York career culminated with a solo show at the Hansa Gallery, one of the highly reputed ’10th Street Galleries’.

Paul Beattie with first wife Elaine and members of the Baruch Group, NYC. Mademoiselle Magazine, Nov 1949

Muted Sun, 1966, acrylic on masonite, 24 x 24 inches, P24-81.4 PrMB

Moving to San Francisco in 1954, Paul quickly became immersed in the West Coast art scene. Jay De Feo, Wally Hedrick, Hayward King, Hassel Smith, and James Weeks were among the artists he met early on. As part of this creative environment, he showed his works at The Six Gallery, East and West, Semina Gallery, New Mission, and the Batman Gallery.

In 1963 Paul moved from San Francisco to the redwoods of Sonoma County, and dedicated the next 25 years of his life to creative endeavors. Painting and drawing prolifically, he experimented with acrylics, watercolors, spray paints and inks. He also spent countless hours researching astronomy and the cosmos, wrote a 63-page manuscript on the similarities between art and astrophysics, and created multi-media assemblages, rocket ships, ceramic creatures and asteroids.

Green River, 1968, acrylic with mixed media on masonite, 14 x 15 3/4 inches, PM-79.1

Structured Space #60, 1984, acrylic and china marker on masonite, 48 x 48 inches, SSP-91.36

From 1974 through 1978 Paul taught landscape composition and watercolor painting at Santa Rosa Junior College, while earning his Masters of Art at Berkeley. He exhibited his works often, both locally and throughout California. In 1975 he was invited to be part of the exhibition: Collage and Assemblage in Southern California at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Paul also had three shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era in 1976; a large solo show, Paul Beattie: Paintings and Drawings in 1980; and he was included in the museum’s The 50th Anniversary exhibition in 1984-85.

By the 1980s, Paul began to see himself more as an “abstract realist” than an abstract expressionist. His search for a fresh, original genre led him to the use of cloud and sky-oriented subjects in his artwork. This source of imagery leant itself to his preference for open brushwork, sketch-like qualities in drawing, and creating structure through color. Paul wrote, “this artistic form gradually evolved from landscapes and horizon lines into atmospheric ‘decks’, helping to satisfy my interest in bringing together the qualities of a completely abstract painting experience and of a literal (bordering on photographic) verisimilitude”.

Turbulent Mixture, 1974, acrylic on masonite, 24 x 24 inches, P24-81.53, collection of MAMCO museum in Switzerland

Evening Horizon, 1978, acrylic on masonite, 12 x 12 inches, P12-80.156

In 1980 Thomas Albright, critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that Paul Beattie’s paintings, “… explore cosmological phenomena, but they simultaneously focus more intently on the various points at which these phenomena intersect with art historical elements. Thus there are stains and patches of irregularly daubed and dappled color that suggest not only clouds and nebulas but the amorphous Impressionist surfaces of late Monet – there are lines and rods of color that imply not only the kinetic movement of magnetic fields, but the fractured geometry of early Mondrian”.

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