With “When In Rome, Georgia,” I am passionate about spreading the word about small businesses and promoting them as much as possible to residents and visitors. I sometimes also get to meet and promote local business people and artists. After speaking to him, I wanted to spotlight local artist Rome’s Chef Greg Paulson and his forte for pencil drawing.
Greg Paulson is known to many around Rome as Chef Greg. He has an impressive resume and is currently the Program Director and Instructor of Culinary Arts at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. Greg’s creative skills have been featured in numerous regional magazines and displays. He is a very talented gingerbread artist and ice carver as well. While one cannot easily match Greg’s culinary skills, he is also an incredibly gifted pencil artist. Greg has a fantastic collection of drawings that he has done over the years.
Love Of Art
Greg grew up in Homewood, Illinois, a suburb south of Chicago. Art has always been a passion of his as he was growing up. Greg has always had a specific interest in pencil drawings. As a student, he and another kid in his class were avid drawers. While his friend was into cartoon-type drawings, Greg was into pencil drawings. They were the young artists of the class, and they enjoyed a healthy competition between themselves. They knew that if they entered any art competition, one of them would win it.
After high school, he entered college to study architecture. Still, his interest in art got the best of him, and he decided to change his major. Although his passion was drawing, the fear of becoming a proverbial “starving artist” guided him toward the culinary arts. He chose a course of study at the Culinary Institute Of America in Hyde Park, New York. After college, his chef skills allowed him to work in many places, such as Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York, The Virgin Islands, and Seattle.
Before coming to Rome, Greg worked as an Executive Chef in Downtown Seattle. He was interested in possibly moving to the southeast to find a warmer and less rainy climate. Rome wasn’t even specifically on his radar at the time. Still, he interviewed for and was offered a job at Coosa Country Club, where he became the Head Chef.
Rock N Roll Collection
Greg’s drawings display his unique style. When I asked whose art influenced him the most, he couldn’t name one particular artist. Instead, he has drawn inspiration from several artists and styles, from Rembrandt’s use of light and darkness to more modern artists such as Chuck Close and Dirk Dzimirsky. He has always preferred black-and-white hyperrealistic portraits and only does pencil drawings. He was never interested in painting with watercolor or any other type of drawing.
Some of the first drawings that Greg completed were of Rock N Roll icons. While in high school in the 70s, he drew portraits of several Rock N Roll artists. He displayed some of them in art shows, and they did well.
Greg has recently revisited drawing Rock N Roll artists and added John Lennon and Paul McCartney to his collection. These are two of his favorites from his Rock N Roll Collection.
Jimi Hendrix is another portrait from his “Rock & Roll Icons” Collection. The detail of his drawing is astounding. He goes for a look of photorealism, where he wants to make it as realistic as possible. I think he does a fantastic job of capturing realism in his drawings.
Personal Pieces
When he chooses subjects to focus his drawings on, they are usually things that speak to him. This could be because of the subjects’ contrasts, or, as in the case of his younger years in school, the subjects are just cool pop icons such as Mick Jagger.
Sometimes his drawings evoke strong emotions. One example is a drawing of his son-in-law’s grandfather, Edward. After Edward passed away, Greg and his wife attended his funeral. The family had placed a photograph of him behind the casket. Greg thought it was a great shot of him and arranged to get a copy of the photo to draw. He surprised his son-in-law’s dad, James, and his family by gifting them the original drawing and four prints on Father’s Day this year.
Collections
Greg has done collections of drawings over time. This Snow Leopard from his “Big Cats, Little Cats” collection shows the broad range of shades from white to dark black that Greg uses in his drawing. He chose ten different cats to draw for his collection, all the same size of 12′ x 12′.
Unlike many pencil artists who tend to work primarily in the greyscale, Greg prefers to work mainly with the deepest blacks and whitest whites. This allows him to shadow or highlight items as he sees fit to create his drawings.
When asked why he chooses certain subjects for his collections or specific drawings, he replied, “I choose things because somehow I am attracted to them. I choose subjects for not only the subject matter but, I think, also the challenge of doing the drawing.” One of his favorite pieces would be the Wood Bison from his “Endangered” series because of the amount of detail and size. It’s huge!
Greg’s long-time dream is about to come true. He is hosting an Art Show next year that will feature his drawings! It will be held at the Rockmart Cultural Center on Saturday, May 14th, 2022.
I asked Greg what, in his opinion, is the hardest part about art. He doesn’t like the drudgery of getting started. Once the work begins to flow, though, he loves it. He will turn the music up and work on a piece for hours.
It was an honor to interview Greg and see his drawings. He has a fantastic eye for art and a talent for bringing his portraits to life. Chef Greg Paulson is a gifted artist whose skills extend well beyond the kitchen, and I am excited that I could share his gift of pencil drawing with you.
You can visit his website HERE to see Greg Paulson’s artwork or commission him for a piece.
