Painter
Member of Flag since:
2019
Paul’s Bio:
Paul Ladnier, Professor Emeritus, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, taught painting and drawing for nearly forty years. He received numerous awards and recognition for the quality of his teaching and dedication to his students, the community and the university. Upon his retirement, UNF honored him with an eponymous scholarship, which provides educational funds for exceptional painting majors. He received the MFA degree from Syracuse University and the BFA degree from Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, Florida. Paul has exhibited in solo exhibitions and numerous group shows throughout his career. He is an invited artist to many plein-air competitions and events, including the prestigious, annual Publisher’s Invitational, “Paint the Adirondacks,” and 2016’s Publishers Invitational, Cuba. He taught two summers in Italy as part of UNF’s study abroad program. He has painted throughout the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
He is a member of The American Impressionist Society, The Society of Illustrators, since 1984, and in 2017 he was elected to the prestigious Salmagundi Club, New York. In 2019 he was voted into the prestigious Florida artists Organization FLAG. (Florida Artists Group.) He was one of eight charter members to start the CoRK Arts District in Jacksonville, which has become a focal point of the arts. It has grown to more than 65 artists and studios.
Paul continues to travel, paint, exhibit his works, teach privately at his CoRK studio and conduct painting and drawing workshops. In June 2019, he taught a plein-air workshop for Il Chiostro at San Fedele, Italy and has been invited back to teach again in 2020. In November 2019, he conducted a three-weekend figure drawing/painting workshop at the CoRK studios in Jacksonville.
Affiliations: FCPAP (First Coast Plein Air Painters), The American Impressionist Society, Society of Illustrators, Adirondack Plein Air Painters, FLAG, (Florida Artists Group) and Salmagundi Club, New York
Artist Statement:
I have had a lifelong passion for painting and painting process, which plays a major role in my work as it reinforces the world I paint. I believe that paint should reveal but not conceal the meaning of a work. Process should accentuate and contribute to the message and relay the passion and soul of the artist.
My inspirations come from years of studying the works of Sargent, Sorolla, Mancini, Fechin, the Barbizon School, the Renaissance masters and the Impressionists. Landscape and figure painting are my passions. Deliberate drawing, brushstrokes and marks, impasto, scratches, splatters, drips and multiple layers are all part of this process. In addition to the viewer examining my work from a distance, I want them to look closely…to explore the marks and layers of paint, which may sometimes reveal other aspects like original marks, multiple revisions, compositional changes and unexpected color and drawing. My paintings are personal interpretations of the subject, developed with emphasis on drawing, color, balance, harmony and arrangement of everything necessary to convey the message of a painting.
Exhibitions and Awards:
2019 Best of Show Award, “The Old Warrior,”
St Augustine Art Association, Members Show,
St. Augustine, FL
2019 2nd Place Award, ‘Sanary Sur Mer Afternoon,” JCA “Plein-Air Light” Exhibition, Jacksonville, FL 2019 Honorable
Award, Ponte Vedra Cultural Center Plein-Air Exhibition,
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
2019 Top Award Quick Draw, St Augustine Art Association Plein-Air Paintout, St Augustine, FL
2019 3rd Place Award, “Yellow Door,” St Marys, Ga.
9th Annual Plein Air Paintout
2019 2nd Place Award, “Carl, ”St. Augustine
Annual Member Show
2018 Artists Who Mentor, Narthex Gallery,
Jacksonville, Florida
2018 Creativity Award, “Bicycles, ”Where Art Meets History,
St Augustine Art Association
2018 Invited Artist: White Oak Conservation Area
2018 Invited Artist in Residence: Thomasville, Georgia
Rose Festival
2018 Article, “Twelve Thousand Pounds of Snapper,”
Arbus Magazine
2018 Article, First Coast Magazine, The Colors of Cuba.
2018 Invited Speaker at UNF OLLI, The Colors of Cuba
2017 First Place, Art Battle Invitational,
Jacksonville Beach, FL
2017 Honorable mention Breath Ponte Vedra Cultural
Center, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
2017 Best of Show, St Augustine Members Show,
St Augustine, FL
2017 Honorable Mention, St Augustine plein-air paintout,
St Augustine, FL
2017 Best of Show, Lake City plein-air paintout,
Lake City, FL
2017 New Member Show, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
2017 The Fine Line, Space Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2017 Cuba, Southlight Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2017 The Cuba Project, Solo Exhibition, Jacksonville International Airport, Jacksonville, FL
2017 The DNA of the Mark, Frank Rampolla and
his students, MOCA, Jacksonville, FL
2016 A River Speaks Lufrano Gallery, University of
North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
2015 Florida, North, South, East, West. Jewish
Community Association, Jacksonville, FL
2015 Face Forward, Jacksonville International Airport,
Jacksonville, FL
2015 FCPAP Members Exhibition, Daryl Bunn Studio,
Jacksonville, FL
2014 Friends, Angels and Other Anomalies, Solo Exhibition,
Thrasher Horne Center for the Arts, Orange Park, FL
2014 Low Country Light , Solo Exhibition, Ponte Vedra
Cultural Center, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
2013 2nd Place Figure Exhibition, Florida State College
Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
2010 Looking Forward, Looking Back, MOCA,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL
2010 First Place Quick Draw, Forgotten Coast en Plein-Air,
Port St. Joe, FL