Paul Jacob Bashour (b. 1975) is an American visual artist based in Los Angeles best known for his large-scale, heavily textured and multi-layered abstract paintings. Inspired by the abstract expressionist movement, Paul Jacob continues to explore and find inspiration in the intersection of the abstract and the representational. He seeks the hidden literal, wondering if it can be more powerfully expressive in abstraction. With a background in sculpting and pottery, Paul Jacob’s paintings often develop into sculpture-like pieces that protrude from the canvas. His interest also in the intersection of two dimensional and three dimensional is at play, and is seen throughout his works.
Paul Jacob has exhibited his works in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Palm Springs, Newport, RI and Big Sky, MT. Each city inspired the artist to create and showcase new works, often with materials from that place. Paul Jacob’s works have attracted the attention of collectors, designers and art enthusiasts in Europe and the U.S., and can be found in private collections in the U.S. and abroad.
Paul Jacob began exploring painting, drawing and sculpture at an early age. He grew up in an artistic household, moving from the midwest to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home of illustrator Norman Rockwell, near the studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French, Chesterwood. Paul Jacob became inspired by these historic personalities, and his talents began to grow in the creative atmosphere of the Berkshires, studying art and apprenticing with local artists.
In his 20s, living in New York, Paul Jacob immersed himself in art, music, film and photography work, while creating increasingly abstract paintings influenced by the city architecture around him. His renovating business, painting, plaster, and tile began to influence his artistic technique and further evolution toward abstraction. It led to his method of using hardware store materials and tools, which were then at hand, like plaster, mortar, a trowel, dropcloth and buckets of acrylic paint.
With wood and drop cloth from building supply stores, Paul Jacob builds and stretches his own frames. Without a brush or easel, he works horizontally on saw horses inside a canvas-walled booth, which becomes like a creative cocoon, setting the stage to add layer upon layer of acrylic paint, plaster, cement, metals, textiles and other media. Drying and cracking set in, then more layers are added over days or weeks. He uses a trowel to spread and his hands to throw, splash, flick, place and form the materials, often giving a high relief dimension to the work.
