Before discovering the Native faces, Paul was mainly painting scenes and a few of his surrealistic ideas.  It was at the April 1974 Artisan Craft Fair in Vancouver where it all began.  The guy who was running this Craft Fair had cut up the Edward Curtis’ book on Native Indians of North America and was selling them as 8×10 photos. My mother recalls: “I looked at these photos and immediately they reached out to me and I knew Paul would be interested. So I asked the guy where they were from and I wrote down all the info.” Edward Curtis was a famous photographer from Seattle, who in the early 1900’s decided to record the First People of Canada and the USA. He went out on many ventures, starting campfires and waiting patiently until the Natives’ curiosity took over. They allowed him to photograph them and he created the most extensive historical works on the Native People of North America.  The entire 20 volumes of this work, comprising narrative text and photogravure images, are online. For those of you who are interested, I highly recommend taking a look here: http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/

It truly is a step back in time.

Paul and Joanne met Curtis’s daughter in the late 70s in Scottsdale, Arizona and spent an afternoon with her. At that time, she was in her mid 7O’s, living in Palm Springs. She had visited the De La Mano Gallery, in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Arizona where Paul was resident artist for three years in the late 70’s and discovered Paul’s work. “She recognized her Father’s studies of the Natives and was so impressed with Paul’s work that she asked the gallery if they could arrange a visit with them at their apartment in Scottsdale. So she returned to Palm Springs just to spend a day with them reminiscing about her Father and commending Paul for identifying with these extraordinary studies, her Father’s life works, capturing the souls of these people. She said he would be happy to think that he inspired Paul to paint such masterful works.” says Joanne.

“She talked to us about her Father’s trips that took him away from the family for months at a time” remembers Joanne, “and sometimes he took her sister who was also recording all the info. She was a little envious of her sister, as she did get special attention from her Father and I was surprised that she would relate these stories to us. It was fascinating to meet her and we felt honoured by her visit.”

So back to that afternoon in April 1974, when Joanne discovered  the Edward Curtis book. “I remember saying to him” she says, “These are amazing studies, Mark my Words, Paul will be painting these extraordinary studies at our next big show”. So that afternoon she called round to see what bookstore had a copy of Edward Curtis’ book on the Natives and there was a bookshop on West Broadway near the Gallery that had it. On the following Monday, she said to Paul: “I have something very special to show you, I want to see what you think.”  “As soon as Paul opened Curtis’s book these portraits reached out to him, the same as they did to me. It was like travelling back in time and we were entranced. It was their expression, how Curtis captured our First People, there was a message there, it was profound,  their strength, their enduring pride and we looked at these portraits as a confirmation of a People that had suffered, lost their land, a need to tell us all that they will never be forgotten, their ancestors will never be forgotten”. Paul was inspired. From that moment, the history of the Natives and their legacy became important to my Father as an artist and to my Mother’s vision for his work. Through their inspiration and passion, Paul represented the First People’s pride and their unbelievable inner strength.