Duet, Paula McArdle

Paula McArdle

Paula thinks it is important that the viewer has a connection themselves rather than having it forced upon them. She is always happy to share her opinions and thoughts with people about a certain painting, but she is also happy to hear their thoughts first, to see their interpretation of this painting. “It is always interesting to see whether our thoughts connect or they find their own direction for a painting. This to me, is the power of a painted image”

Paula is most comfortable working with acrylic on both paper and canvas, as well as incorporating collage and textiles into certain finished paintings. When asked about her inspirations, and where she gets it from, she feels that she is supposed to answer in a certain wayand pull out a string of artists who inspire her. The truth is that while she finds certain elements of other artist’s works inspiring (for example, Matisse’s use of form and collage or the boldness of Picasso’s ideas), she finds her ideas in life’s little nuances. She also draws color inspiration from non-specific naïve American folk art. She likes the basic colors, the simple stylized look, the graphic qualities, the simple heart-warming charm, as well as the textures and feel of a piece. Paula also enjoys textiles and folk-style patchwork for the same qualities.

Her humanity is never far from the surface. Every scene has a discreet tongue in cheek feeling behind it. A gentle mockery of our sentiments is ever present, but at the same time her art shows a love and compassion of a heart touched with a discreet wonder. Even her colors have a discreet feeling. Her preferences for shell pinks, soft grays, bluey greens and warm brown, show emotional significance. They are clues to the nature of the images. Her delight in texture, having worked in textiles, is ever present and serves to give an underlying richness to the picture, creating sometimes a life of it’s own as certain areas of the picture become almost three dimensional. Above all, the art of Paula McArdle, like all innocent Naïve Art, is a pure manifestation of joy, which takes us back to the Garden of Eden, into which we where all born and perhaps, in the words of Picasso, has been hidden from us by knowledge.

The work of McArdle springs from a sense of joy of the world around her. She has created a unique visual world much akin to a language. Her works suggests a dream-like place, where humor and subtle interplays of her characters take place. She will often mix images of our immediate world with an era suggestive of her grandparent’s time, often portraying her characters in antiquated clothing. Her works have a childlike quality and a sense of wonder and innocence presented from the perspective of a child.