De Cocker Paul
Paul De Cocker (pseudonym: PADECO) was a Belgian artist born in 1931 in Gavere/Vurste and died in 2020 in Ghent. He was a painter, draftsman and graphic artist. He was cousin of Henri De Cocker. He was educated at the Arts et Métiers in Nivelles and at the Drawing Academy in Sint-Truiden. He made his debut with expressionist rural scenes, but evolved towards a more contemporary symbolic realism, in which women often take a central place. The woman and the nude are depicted in a hyper-realistic way, the woman's face is incorporated into a symbolic composition. Pastel tonalities predominate in his color palette. From the press: “He conveys a message in a lyrical way through a refined symbolism. He conveys deeper soul stirrings such as joy, sadness, hope and love through his beautiful women and their connection with nature” and “P.D.C. works with synthetic paints, which offer a rather limited color range, but that scant palette is more than sufficient for a man who must have all kinds of tricks that lean very much towards the graphics. He practices screen printing, which he integrates into his paintings without hesitation, just as in his paintings he also treats entire parts as a drawing with pencil or watercolor pencil, uses pochoirs, uses monotype parts, in short: experiments to his heart's content, grasping everything that comes to his mind. hands.” (R. Clement) He was also active as a designer of stamps. He was co-founder of the Kunstkring Spectrum and honorary chairman of the Kunstkring Joost De Clercq Marke. He worked alternately in Zwijnaarde and Le Bourg d'Hem-Creuse/France. He is mentioned in Artists and Galleries 1997, the fourth edition (2000) and in BAS II and Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists. (piron)