Exhibition
Pelé at Halcyon Gallery
In 2015 Paul made three artworks for the Brazilian football icon Pelé, shown at Halcyon Gallery beside pieces from Andy Warhol’s Athletes series.
Paul had the honour of developing three artworks in 2015 for the Brazilian sporting and football icon Pelé at Halcyon Gallery. Paul’s final artwork, entitled “Pelé”, sat alongside other outstanding pieces from Andy Warhol’s Athletes series, and works by Lorenzo Quinn, Mitch Griffiths, Pedro Paricio, Ernesto Cánovas and others.
These years were highly formative in Paul’s contemporary and current work. They were instrumental in developing many of his current artistic approaches and in shaping the energy of his modern abstract impressionism.
There have been many milestones in Paul’s career, but this was a fundamental shift: in his advancement professionally, and as a creative and an artist, as his work naturally found its place among art-world heavyweights.
Alongside his three works, Paul had the opportunity to photograph Pelé, which was a true honour.
My strongest memory of that time and working with Pelé was just how kind and humble he was, especially with the level of his achievements. A truly inspirational person that I’m always grateful to have met and worked with. Portrait photography is an intimate experience and it was an honour to get to know him on a personal level. Rest his soul.
One of the lesser-known parts of Paul’s artistic process is his deep respect and love for photography, and the role it plays in his work. Shaped through many years of travel, whether capturing coastlines or cities, many of these photographs inform the subject and composition of Paul’s paintings.
From one of these portraits Paul developed one of his paintings of the great football icon. Even in a subject as unfamiliar as portrait painting, Paul captured a remarkably beautiful quality, and found the essence and soul of a true worldwide icon.
Paul’s ability to move between subjects and styles speaks volumes about him as a gifted and deeply driven artist, one who has always been at the forefront of his own stylistic development.
We still see those threads today, as Paul continually works to reinvent and further his work.