PAUL LORENZ / ARTIST PORTRAIT

I love Paul Lorenz's paintings, I even have a few hanging in my house! His work has been exhibited worldwide, with past exhibitions in Australia, Singapore, Austria, England and Sweden to name just a few. It's amazing that his studio, Studio Mars,  is located in the Lowertown Arts District here in Paducah, Kentucky. His abstract work is based in experimentation with the qualities of the medium itself, usually graphite, paint, or a combination of the two. In his words, "Abstraction is not a style, but a state of mind…a way of thinking about action, time and circumstance, confidence and risk-taking, boldness and subtlety." You can view more work from Paul online at www.paullorenz.com.

When we were asked to do his portraits, I wanted to create photos that echoed both his work and the concept of exploration. I really liked his philosophy on time and circumstance that allows for something beautiful to be created. The highlight of the shoot for me as a photographer is the picture above, although I think Paul may have felt it was a bit much. For the effect, we used a water-based white paint. I had Paul experiment with the shape and forms we could create by flinging it from two of his larger paint brushes. We used the fastest shutter speed we could to freeze the action. The setting for the shot was Paul's bamboo garden. You can't tell, but the back door to his studio is actually just outside the photograph. Thanks for reading and I hope you love these pictures as much as we loved creating them! Check out a few more portraits and work slides of Paul's work from the shoot in the gallery below. View more commercial portrait photography from our studio here.