Paul Wallace Niemiec

Background

Niemiec has described his artistic outlook as rooted in a country upbringing and in sustained attention to the effects of light and atmosphere on the natural world. His professional life developed along two parallel paths: clinical pharmacy and teaching on one hand, and painting, drawing, printmaking, and exhibition on the other. From the late 1980s he was associated with Baldwinsville, New York, while his art became increasingly connected with coastal Maine and Monhegan Island.

Education

Niemiec studied pharmacy at Albany College of Pharmacy, completing a Bachelor of Science in 1971, and continued his professional education at Duquesne University, where he earned the Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1981. His education was followed by hospital pharmacy residency training and later work in clinical and nutritional-support pharmacy, providing the academic foundation for his career in patient-centered and institutional pharmacy practice.

Career

Niemiec began his pharmacy career with a hospital pharmacy residency at Upstate Medical Center, first recorded from 1971 to 1972. He then served as a staff pharmacist at Crouse-Irving Memorial Hospital from 1972 to 1979. In 1980–1981 he completed a further hospital pharmacy residency at Upstate Medical Center, followed in 1981–1982 by residency training in nutrition support at the Medical University of South Carolina. From 1983 to 1986 he worked as clinical pharmacy coordinator at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he was identified in professional pharmacy literature in connection with clinical pharmacy and nutritional-support management. He was subsequently associated with Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital as an assistant professor and continued clinical-pharmacy work. Alongside his medical career, he developed a sustained freelance art practice in Baldwinsville beginning in 1988. His artistic work has included watercolor, oil, mixed media, egg tempera, etching, drypoint, and limited-edition prints. Since the 1970s he has participated in more than 40 group exhibitions and juried shows and more than 15 solo exhibitions. His work has been represented by galleries including Lupine Gallery on Monhegan Island, the Audubon Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina, and Wiscasset Bay Gallery in Maine. He has also taught watercolor, including workshops on Monhegan Island, and operates his art practice through Running Wind Studio.

Achievements

• Participated in more than 40 group exhibitions and juried shows and more than 15 solo exhibitions since the 1970s.

• Was included in the Millennium Edition of Who's Who in America.

• Developed a sustained body of work in watercolor, oil, mixed media, egg tempera, etching, drypoint, and related forms of American representational art.

• Taught watercolor through public classes and workshops, including a Monhegan Island watercolor workshop.

Works

• Drypoint

  • Rounding the Cove

    (Original drypoint on copper by Paul Niemiec Jr.)

• watercolor

  • Old Salt

    (Representative watercolor by Paul Niemiec Jr.)

  • Where the Whales Run, study

    (Watercolor study by Paul Niemiec Jr.; the image was repro...)

    2014

Religion

Methodist

Views

Niemiec's stated artistic philosophy emphasizes honest, unadorned, personal statements about the beauty of life and the land. He seeks simplicity, understatement, substance, and emotional truth, and regards close observation and imaginative reflection as complementary parts of artistic practice. In his printmaking, he has expressed a preference for restraint and the principle of “less is more.”

Quotations: “Painting for me is an emotional experience about a real place, memory or feeling.” He has also stated that he strives for “honest, unadorned, personal statements about the beauty of life and the land” and seeks “simplicity, understatement, substance and emotional truth.”

Membership

Niemiec has been associated with the Society of American Graphic Artists, the International Society of Marine Painters, the National Watercolor Society, Allied Artists American, and the Central New York Watercolor Society. These affiliations reflect his continuing participation in professional communities devoted to watercolor, marine painting, printmaking, and American representational art.

• Society American Graphic Artists , United States

• International Society Marine Painters , United States

• National Watercolor Society , United States

• Allied Artists American , United States

• Central New York Watercolor Society , United States

Personality

Niemiec has described his artistic approach in terms of observation, simplicity, understatement, substance, and emotional truth. He regards painting as an emotional response to a real place, memory, or feeling and emphasizes personal reasons for making a work rather than merely reproducing appearances.

Interests

• Watercolor instruction, coastal and maritime subjects, printmaking, etching, drypoint, and observational painting.

Connections

Niemiec's documented immediate family connections include his mother, Jeanette, and his father, Paul. His professional connections extend across clinical pharmacy institutions and the American art communities of Baldwinsville, coastal Maine, and Monhegan Island.

Father:

Paul

Mother:

Jeanette

References

• Paul Niemiec Jr. official artist biography Documents Niemiec's country upbringing, commitment to traditional American Realism, use of watercolor, oil, mixed media, egg tempera, and printmaking, exhibition record, awards, inclusion in Who's Who in America, published appearances, and artistic philosophy.
• Paul Niemiec Jr. official galleries and news page Documents gallery representation connected with Monhegan Island, Charleston, South Carolina, and Wiscasset, Maine.
• Monhegan Watercolor Workshop with Paul Niemiec Jr. Documents Niemiec's role as watercolor workshop instructor on Monhegan Island and describes the workshop's observational and self-expression objectives.
  2024