Paul E. Lancaster (August 31, 1930 – June 18, 2019) was an American painter and framer known for his self-taught folk art.
[3] He later joined the United States Army where he claimed he was offered a position as a medical illustrator, but he declined this role as he felt it would be a waste of his artistic talent.
Accounts vary on when Lancaster first took up painting and illustration, including while hospitalized for tuberculosis in 1953, as a child in the 1930s and 1940s, or while in the Army in 1959.
[4] The gallery's owner, Myron King, did not promote Lancaster's more complicated and unique paintings, instead he encouraged the artist to make simple etchings that could be sold to locals.
According to a profile in British art magazine Raw Vision, his style was said to incorporate floral, human figure, and fantasy elements.