Paul Brent now lives in Panama City and his art work is very famous. His art work is known worldwide. He first came to Bay County in 1969. His work has shown constant progression and change. The first pieces of art work that he sold in 1976 were pen and ink paintings of coastal wildlife. When he made these paintings he tinted them with light washes of watercolor. By 1978 he stopped using the pen and ink and then start doing more detailed and volumetric paintings of the same subjects, mostly his paintings were of shore birds and shells.
In 1982 he did some experimentation and then he launched a new style that features a painted wash background with drips and splashes of watercolor that ran off the image area. The backgrounds had much of the same action of Jackson Pollack's work. Paul Brent wasn't just a normal painter he would add salt to some of his paintings. He would add salt to the wet flow of paint to add textures and depth to his paintings. The texture and depth would come from the chemical reaction of the dissolving salt with the fluid paint. On top of his unique loose backgrounds Paul would paint detailed, almost scientific, renderings of tropical fish, birds, shells and flowers. Along with that he put in geometric shapes of French curves like triangles, circles and sometimes three dimensional shapes. His watercolor techniques and style was later called a “Watercolor Montage”.
“Watercolor Montage” means several unrelated images and techniques that are composed together but created in one medium. His composition might look like a lot of pictures or images that are glued together. In the late 80's he started to drift away from his work and evolve. He started to use less and less splashes of geometric shapes. Since he started to evolve he had to come up with a new style and he did. He called the painting style: “Structured Vignette”. The white edge of paper stayed but instead of a drip edge he moved to an irregular edge of an inner image was painted more deeply and the image flowed past the border. With his new painting style he began to paint scenic coastal landscapes and seascapes.
He was so good at his new painting style he was chosen out of 2 official artists to portray the new town of Seaside Florida when it began to be built. He entered the print publishing business in 1986. That was when his early work in Seaside Florida really became well known. Paul Brent went from painting tropical fish, birds, shells and flowers to painting wildlife of the southwest. He also started painting paintings with hot air balloons, flowers, and garden scenes. These were all subjects he portrayed in the 90's. In the early 90's he began to surround his inner images with decorative borders that would relate to his licensed work and he continued with many of the same subject that he had worked with in the past as well as visit other coastal areas around U.S as well as the Caribbean. As the time moves do did Paul Brent's art work and he made another turn. He began to take interest in oil and paint seriously in oil. First on tempered board that he hand gessoed and then later painted it on canvas then once again on board. It was like a rough draft paper in writing.
His first oil paintings reflected the transparent tradition of watercolors but he soon moved in to richer layered paintings that explore the depth of color possible with oil paint. Soon after that he started to paint flowers, florals and tropical scenes. Palm trees were used so much they became his icon in his paintings. He even painted a new series called “Plantation Home” was painted that reflected vintage Hawaiian subjects. One of his latest oil paintings had a feeling of a collage. He mixed in watercolor with the oil paint as he worked to make it look even more like a collage. With watercolor and oil paint he created paintings that are graphically composed with antique prints, stamps, textures, calligraphy and found objects. In a recent trade publication advertisement Paul Brent used the quote “one artist many visions” and a retrospective of his professional art work would validate the claim. Paul Brent may be from Panama City but he wasn't born in Panama City. He was born in 1946 in Oklahoma City.
His father Paul Leslie Brent and his mother Aledo Render Brent were both educators. Since his dads name was Paul too that meant that Paul Brent was a Jr. Paul Brent. From the age of five years old until he was thirteen, Paul Brent lived in southwest Oklahoma in the community of Alden where his father was a superintendent of the school system and his mother taught first and second grades. Paul Brent was interested in art at an early age. His mom encouraged him by providing him with art supplies and working with him with his arts and craft projects. In 1959 Paul Brent moved with his parents and his older sister, Carolyn to Long Beach, California. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1968 and after graduation he joined the Air Force.
After training in the Air Force he was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City in 1969. Paul has donated his art for many local charities including the spring festival of the arts that the participated in for 25 years. Now Paul and Lana Jana have two sons, Jensen 26 years conducting research in sports medicine at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and Anders age 17 at Bay High in Panama City. Maybe one day his young might become artists like him.
