PAUL G. OXBOROUGH
	FOREWORD Two "Coat Check Girls" are cocooned among a sea of winter coats, both absorbed in texting - communicating, technically speaking. Coyly smiling, the young woman with the flaming red hair glances up. Christmas lights strung haphazardly give a celebratory glow to their abundantly cluttered surroundings. Half a world away, a trio of women whose faces are aglow with firelight, sing songs into the night air. Rhythmically chanting "Ee-Yay-Yo," they speak not only to themselves and the strangers among them, but it seems to all those who have gone before and are yet to follow. For each group, it is not an unusual moment in their lives, among friends and coworkers. But society relies upon the artist's instinct to find the noteworthy and to weave the stories worth telling. Through the gleam in a coquettish eye or the flicker of a spark in the night, Paul Oxborough is that extraordinary painter who fulfills our weighty expectations and all with seeming ease. From his home in the American Midwest to the hills of the African Kalahari, Oxborough has traveled documenting ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. Camaraderie and solitude, labor and leisure - each are celebrated in his epic new body of work. Though the overall scope and diversity of the collection is breathtaking, each individual painting possesses an intimacy and immediacy that we have come to identify with this remarkable talent. Traveling both near and far, Oxborough finds his muse by "being in the moment" and allowing all his senses to create a journal of memories. "Though my academic training dictated only working from life, I found that approach too stifling. I don't compose photographically however," he admits, "most of my photos are too distant, general and quite uninteresting. I do a lot of sketching and record written notes to define both palette and tonality. But it's the smells, the sounds, the size of a place and the air which fills your lungs that define an indelible experience." In his studio, when he stands in front of the easel to paint the story of a pair of fish mongers in Zanzibar or two old friends in a local Irish pub, those perceptions will allow his mind to travel and inform the reference materials he has created. We will know the intensity of the sun on a dry and dusty road in Botswana where a "Basket Weaver" sells his wares; just as we can almost feel the gentle waves on the "Caribbean Boy" as he idly floats in the crystal clear waters. But it's not just cultural diversity or the differing physical environments that fascinate...Oxborough speaks to the human experience. The familiarity of working side by side is the same whether it's "Two Waiters in Rome" or a pair of bushman "Porcupine Hunting." Oddly each is employed to provide food for their community. Food and drink are in fact favorite subjects of the artist, and in this collection he takes us to "The Royal Livingstone Bar" a grand Colonial establishment, as well as to his local hangouts like "Mini Donuts" and the Mickey's diner of cinema fame. And though he does not consider himself primarily a portrait painter, Oxborough has the uncanny ability to capture the essence of a person that transcends far beyond the likeness of a face or even the hint of a personality. With brushwork that is both facile and fluid, he can communicate the very nature of a person - the gentleness of a soul or the cleverness of a mind. It is likely that is why his portraits have hung at both the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute and, on three separate occasions, at the National Portrait Gallery in London. For all but one of Paul Oxborough's exhibitions, the cover of the catalogue has in fact depicted a different self-portrait. From the page, the artist stares back at us as if challenging us to see him and his work in a new light. Sometimes he has been the adventurer or even a bon-vivant. For this exhibition, in a new self-portrait he seems not just a bit older, but more mature. One might conclude from his look, he is a classicist or a humanist. Conveying more than just intelligence or passion, he certainly seems like a man who has seen a great deal more of life and of the world.
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