Paul Edelstein (American, born 1959)
Paul Edelstein is one of the Mid-South’s better-known artists. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1959, Edelstein was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where he resides today. Edelstein began painting during his early teens. “I felt kind of lonely and depressed as a teenager,” he says, “and used painting as therapy.”
He later received his Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Russian from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. Edelstein was a pupil of artists, Dorothy Sturm (b. Memphis, 1910-1988) and Marjorie Liebman (b. Memphis, 1911); both were at one time with Betty Parsons Gallery in New York.
Of his paintings Edelstein states “color is my passion.”
Paul Edelstein’s paintings are in public and private collections including, The Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, Mississippi; The Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi, and the West Tennessee Museum in Humboldt, Tennessee.
One of Paul’s paintings appeared in the 1993 movie The Firm, and the artist and his painting appeared in the 2003 movie 21 Grams. He did the illustrations for a children's book, Beany the Star, written by Kelly Fischer and published in 2016.
He currently runs the Paul Edelstein Gallery and Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and gives private lessons in painting.
(Biography sourced from Askart online database)