Paul E. Buford, Watercolor Artist

Watercolor Artist

I am a 2000 graduate from the Mississippi State School of Architecture. I was introduced to watercolors in the program and have loved them ever since. They have such unique ways of helping you tell a story.

I have always been drawn to decayed or decaying items (whether it be old buildings, collapsed barns, or abandoned/aged cars). The more I studied them and thought about what it was I got from them the more I realized that it isn't the image at all....it's the history of the image. At some point all these items were new, someone took pride in building them, events happened in and around them as they aged. Dents, rust, rot, algae, etc, are beautiful representations of just this, they are visual characteristics that there is indeed a story there. However you may never know the story, and this lets your imagination go wild.....what "could have" happened here? In the same manner I have come to really appreciate rat rods and what most would consider "unfinished street rods". Pure controlled chaos! There is a profound beauty involved in someone being able to harness all this decay into functional art.