Biography

Paul Chidlaw (1900-1989) was born on April 5, 1900 in Cleves, Ohio. He was a colorist who painted in oil, watercolor, acrylic, etchings, pastel, charcoal, pencil. In 1927, after working as a designer for commercial firms in Cincinnati for several years, he traveled to France and studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau. He later moved to Paris but found that his formal academic art training was restrictive. In 1989 while reflecting on his studies in France, Chidlaw remarked: "Because of my academic training, my painting was rather reserved. I was always trying to imitate nature. I wasn't as free. I was more less in a box." Chidlaw returned to Cincinnati in 1935 and taught and painted various commissions including Work Progress Administration (WPA) murals under the Federal Art Project. He taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1947 until his retirement in 1963. After retirement, he taught drawing and painting in a studio in the Rookwood Building in Mt. Adams from 1964 to 1977, when he was appointed artist-in-residence at Edgecliff College. In 1979 Edgecliff awarded him an honorary doctorate