The work of Paul Landry can
brighten a room by its presence alone. Romantic images of flower-filled seaside
gardens, cozy cottages, and ocean shores, the paintings are bright and airy and
filled with lush colors.
Now one of the most popular nostalgia artists in the U.S., Landry was born on
the coast of Canada, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The grandson of two sea captains
(one Scottish, the other French), it was inevitable that he, too, turn to the
sea as he grew older, working with fishermen on the banks of Nova Scotia and
helping them pull up their nets and traps. Never far away were his sketchpad and
camera. “I believe that you have to know your subject to paint it well,” he
says. “Spending time on the sea has allowed me to know its many moods.”
By the time Landry was seventeen, he had gained apprentice status as a
photoengraver. He started working his way through the Nova Scotia College of Art
and also attended the Art Students League in New York City. Shortly afterward,
he took a brief sabbatical to paint the sea and the people who make their living
from it.
Finally Landry settled in Connecticut, where he taught at Westport’s Famous
Artists School and wrote the popular textbook On Drawing and Painting. He still
lives near the shore, enjoying the company of his wife and three children. He
maintains an interest in sports car racing, and he likes to garden, play golf
and walk with his dog. His second book, The Captain’s Garden: A Reflective
Journey Home Through the Art of Paul Landry, was published to unanimous praise
in 1996.
Landry’s paintings have a loyal and growing audience because they celebrate
the spirit of life and bring back memories of halcyon days. “The sea, the
villages that border it and the people who work it all hold a great fascination
for me,” he says. “The quality of ever-changing stability makes the sea and
coast unending sources of inspiration as they beckon my heart and hand.”
