Old Man at the Parade

Paul Cheng is an Oil Painters of America Signature Member, Art Gallery Painter, Award-Winning Artist, Sr. Illustrator in the Animation and Gaming field. He was born in Guangzhou, China and received his BFA degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in China. Having emigrated, Paul has lived in the United States over the last 27 years.

Old Man at the Parade is reminiscent of the style of Paul Cezanne. The painter deftly captures the aged tiredness in the man at the same time capturing an unparalleled pride. Here standing in his uniform, the painter provokes the viewer to wonder about the war-time past of the subject. In addition, the image of the lone man, whose comrades have long gone to the great battlefield above, is thematic of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “poignant poem” “The Last Leaf.” Ironically the most important feature of this painting  may be the title; Cheng did not choose a pretentious title, but instead chose a title that framed the subject and unseen setting for us. Consider, without the title the viewer could easily have overlooked the man’s uniform much less gathered the context and meaning conveyed by it.