Paulden Evans

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Paulden Evans (b. 1939), has been painting professionally since 1997.  He is a certified interior designer in California and is a California general contractor who has built many specs and custom homes throughout Southern California. He has received honors and awards of excellence for his design work from MAME, SAM, and ELAN within the Sales and Marketing Council of Southern California and has been honored twice by the Professional Builders Magazine for his design work. 

Paulden, who goes by his first name professionally, makes us look at the familiar in new ways by playing with, and sometimes even contradicting, our expectations of how art should look and behave. His large-scale paintings, in oil enamel and metal, are abstract, and many pieces are haunted by almost wraithlike figures. And yet, even as his work falls clearly within artistic traditions that are centuries old, it seems simultaneous to result from purely natural processes.

He uses metal rather than canvas as his medium, coating the surface with layers of pigment. The top layers are cracked as with age or tectonic movement so that the bottom layers show through, creating unexpected flickers of color, reminiscent of specks of ore or jewels. Not all art can withstand the environment. Either because the materials are too fragile or the subject matter requires a more peaceful setting. But Paulden’s paintings are designed to be displayed both inside and out.

For the past four years Paulden, who has a studio in Riverside, has moved in a different direction. His new abstracts are studies in color. Layers and layers of paint create a textured surface that suggests fabric and weave an eye busying combination of colors. Creator of the well known “The Visitors” and “The Travelers,” his work is on permanent display in such locations as the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ.

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Private Collections

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Chahan Design Studio, Paris, France

Weinberg Collection, Rancho Mirage, CA

Bob & Merle Lustbader Collection, Chicago, IL

Shep Sector Collection, Seattle, Washington

Wendy Wacker Foundation Collection, Chicago IL

Thomas Hamil Collection, Sydney Australia

Steve and Jennie Zeff Collection, Modesto, CA

Joe and Lila Scher Collection, Montecito, CA