For the love of lowbrow art

ARTIST Paul Hughes is plotting world domination. From pictures of furry-faced monsters gnawing popcorn boxes at the movies, to tiki girls straddling vintage Harley Davidson’s on the beach; he hopes that each stroke of the paint brush will one day see him achieve his ultimate goal – recognition for his artwork.
But until then, world domination is still to be crossed off the Cranbourne North residents’ achievement list.
If you haven’t guessed by now Paul doesn’t take himself too seriously.
On first glance at his unique artistic style, some may say Paul’s paintings reflect his personality; straightforward yet satirical. Some may even say his pieces appear too simple, but Paul just doesn’t want to lose his audience in artistic translation.
“It’s a zombie driving a hot rod, it’s as simple as that”, he says about one of his latest lowbrow paintings. “With my work you don’t need people to explain what it is for half an hour”.
Often comical in nature the lowbrow art movement pays homage to the rockabilly scene and hot rod street culture, while drawing inspiration from American pop culture of the 1950s and ’60s, punk music and underground comics.
It’s as if lowbrow blatantly attacks the dry pastel infused drawings associated with the fine art scene. A scene Paul admits he was a part of early in his career.
After high school, Paul knocked back a plastering apprenticeship from his father and began studying at the Melbourne School of Art. It was halfway through his course that he needed a change in direction and decided to travel to Europe and the USA. On his return his fine art course had changed significantly, causing the aspiring artist to discontinue his study and abandon the fine art scene altogether.
“When I returned to school … I had changed my outlook on things. I just didn’t want to be there”, he said.
It was during this time Paul decided to focus on another one of his passions – music. However when playing in a punk rock cover band until 3am and working in ‘soul sucking’ jobs started to take its toll, Paul found escape through lowbrow art; an artistic style which could interweave his passions for punk, pop culture and the paintbrush.
And his decision to adopt lowbrow is proving rewarding. In 2008 Paul was approached by curators at the Frankston Art Centre, to have his art feature in a solo eight-week show. Remarkably the show was a success.
That year Paul also had his art feature in the annual Linden Postcard competition. Although he didn’t win the main prize of $5,000 and the opportunity to have his work sold as a postcard, all of his entries made a sale.
Just recently Paul has secured a residency at the Hawthorn-based lowbrow gallery Kustom Lane and the coastal ‘Tigerfish’ Gallery in Torquay. Both galleries distinctively house underground artwork on a local and international level.
Through his networks at Kustom Lane, Paul has since befriended Queensland based artist Marcus Thorn, who is internationally renowned for his unique take on the underground street art. Paul believes it was his friendship with Thorn that taught him important skills to survive in such a competitive industry, such as how to create new business ventures.
“Most artists aren’t very business-minded” Paul said, “You have to be able to compromise when people ask you to do a certain thing with your art.”
“You also have to make sure you’re keeping up with trends in the art scene, to get an insight into what you should be doing and to look at the successful artists to see how they market themselves.”
To promote his image overseas, Thorn encouraged Paul to paint pictures of well-known lowbrow artists and later send them a copy of the completed print to act as an ‘icebreaker’ when he would later meet them in person. So who would be the first person Paul would contact with his artwork? None other than Paul’s largest influence: California-based underground artist Doug Dorr.
Having 30 years of experience across all mediums of art, a fascination with ‘Kustom Kulture’ and having recently featured on America’s cable channel MTV, Paul seized the opportunity to network with one of the world’s leading lowbrow artists. Within weeks Dorr responded to Paul’s request and has since become a strong follower of ‘that little dude from Australia’.
“I do admit it does feel a little sneaky, but it’s a good way of cross-promoting one another”, Paul adds.
To see whether Thorn’s networking theory was nothing more than sheer luck, Paul sent more of his prints to the University of Illinois radio show called ‘Surferbilly Freakout’, a show which explores lowbrow art culture in America. Sure enough Paul and his artwork have been discussed on the show several times, further injecting his art and consequently his image into American art culture.
In June Paul will travel to Queensland to attend the annual Winter Sun Rock ‘n’ Roll festival, which includes appearances from lowbrow artists from Australia and aboard, most of which will promote their pieces at the annual artist’s market.
“Eventually I’d like to make a living out of (my art), as not a lot of artists can do that. I think that if you just stick with it, be prepared to work hard and treat your career like a job you’ll get there in the end”
“It takes a bit of courage to spill your guts to the world, put your art out there and bare your soul. At times it’s just paint, blood and tears.”
Today Paul just hopes that the networks he’s made along his artistic journey will continue to provide him with more opportunities to expose his art, and if he’s lucky he may just be able to cross world domination off the list. Paul’s artwork can be seen online at www.myspace.com/artofpaulhughes or within the ‘California screaming Down Under’ exhibition which will feature at the Kustom Lane gallery in March.