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Paul Calle
Paul Calle is an artist whose work reflects the dramatic era of America's Western heritage as well as the one in which he lives. For Calle, the dimensions of art can be as vast as the wild, wind-swept plains of the West, as infinite as outer space and as small as the historic scenes he captured on postage stamps for the United States Postal Service.
Calle's portrayal of the West is not as a romantic adventure but as a realistic challenge. He has made a personal commitment to portray America's past with the same sense of history that guided his hand in depicting the nation's space explorations as an artist for NASA's Fine Art Program.
He is a master of both oil painting and pencil drawing. His drawings – often very large – show incredible control and sensitivity; they have the quality of fine etchings. Few contemporary artists have attained greater mastery of the pencil than Calle, who shares his skills in The Pencil, a record of his odyssey as “an artist with a pencil.” It has been translated into French, Chinese and Russian. Another book of his art, Paul Calle: An Artist's Journey, was awarded the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award for Fine Arts in 1993.
In addition to major corporate and private collections, Calle's artwork is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the United States Department of the Interior, all in Washington, D.C.; and Gilcrease Museum. Calle received the distinguished Buyers' Choice Award at the 1995 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the United States, Soviet Union, Sweden and Poland.
Calle says, “If I had to state a goal, a hope pertaining to my work, my aim would be to keep alive that huge reservoir of our past, to draw strength and sustenance from it and build upon it in ways that are new and different, but not to reject it.”
“I find my inspiration in all the life that surrounds and envelops me, from the evolution of man and his words, of the timelessness of the rocks, the trees, of man, his land, the sky and the sea. That's what it's all about: art is always a visual experience. This is my world and I relish it with great affection.”
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