Paul Edwards
Born and raised in Connecticut. Graduated Paier College of Art in the ‘70s in interior design to become an architectural interior space planner designing offices for doctors, dentists, lawyers, insurance companies, retail spaces, airport terminals, houses, etc. This work then took him into facilities management where he oversaw as many as 350 properties at one time, primarily banks. Here he negotiated leases, managed maintenance, physical security, performed site selection, and designed and performed construction management for over 35 new bank facilities as well as hundreds of square feet of back room offices.
Facilities management paid the bills, but lacked much of the creativity he enjoyed in earlier times. In the 1990s he discovered woodworking where he could design his own furniture, jewelry boxes, etc. and then build them himself in his own workshop. This helped keep the creative juices flowing.
Paul had dabbled in watercolor painting at Paier, but never had time to pursue it, instead choosing photography as a way to exercise his creativity. This passion began at age 14 and continues today. However, he always was frustrated when finding a great compositional scene but not in the light he would have preferred to capture it in.
Upon retiring Paul decided to pursue watercolor painting to give him a new challenge, but also to keep the creative juices flowing on another level. He often uses his photographs to paint from, and soon realized that he could correct for the best lighting when painting these scenes.
And if painting wasn’t challenging enough, at retirement he also took up wood carving, an extension to his earlier woodworking. At first it was just with knives and the pieces were small, but he had always been enthralled by the artistry of bird carvers and after his first class in bird carving he was captured. Today he carves wood with both knives and with mechanized tools and even uses his newly found painting skills to paint his lifelike birds and other carvings.
Paul shares his home and life with his wife and best friend (also an accomplished photographer and wordsmith), Diane, and their two cats in Harwinton.
