Awareness Post (#5)
- Mar 7
- 2 min read
Paul Cadden is a Scottish artist born in 1964. He is well known for his hyper-realistic drawings and paintings that represent the human form and experience of life. His graphite drawings are made with a keen attention to detail in order to capture the nuances of the human figure with remarkable precision and emphasize the detail of a landscape. He uses pencil, charcoal or watercolors for his works and his main pieces focus on particularly expressive human face portraits.
Education:
He studied print design and illustration at Glasgow College of Building and Printing from 1982 to 1986.
Later, he sought education in Animation and Illustration at James Watt College and ultimately completed his studies around 2001-2003.
His experience with exhibitions includes:
Plus One Gallery in London
Where he primarily shows his work
Paul Cadden Solo Show (2015–2016)
His "landmark" exhibition at Plus One Gallery that explored the theme of "intensifying the normal," which featured landscapes and portraits.
The Art of Toil (Solo Show)
One of his major solo exhibition (March 13 to April 22, 2024).
This show highlighted his transition into watercolor alongside his signature pencil portraits, focusing on working-class subjects like coal miners and steelworkers.
Summer Show 2025
This show was held from July 22 to September 10, 2025
It specifically featured seasonal hyperrealist works.
Some Examples of his work:
New York 14
Graphite pencil on paper
New York New York
Graphite pencil on paper
NKVD
Graphite pencil on paper
Old Lady (2020)
Charcoal and pencil on paper
These pieces are really interesting to look at. Each one of them holds an incredible amount of detail which gives it the aesthetic of an old picture. What particularly drew me to Ceddan's work was the beautiful compositions in his landscapes which captured the pleasantness of the area/city. My favorite of the three is probably “New York New York” because the work is beautifully drawn to show the realistic city capturing an intriguing composition which highlights the traffic of the area and the complicated nature of it. I'm really interested in the medium of graphite which is why I chose this artist. As well as this, his art style intrigued me overall and I hope to use some of his unique aspects in my own work.
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