User:Micheltorena

Paul D. Ortlip Bold text Artist - An American Impressionist and Realist He was born in New Jersey at Englewood Hospital, the youngest of 7 siblings who were raised by single father Paul on a historic property on the Palisade cliffs in Fort Lee, New Jersey - the Legendary renovated dance Pavillion of famed Gerth's Bellvedere Grande Hotel; a popular ferry destination on the Hudson River from New York City. The property had been the camp grounds for George Washingtons's troops. Coins, bayonets, buttons, cannon balls, and others were found all over the Ortlip property,many have since been donated by the Ortlips to the Fort Lee Historic Museum

Ortlip, a third generation artist was the youngest of the seven offspring of raising important artists Willard and Aimee Eschner Ortlip, who met while students at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts. As a boy, Paul served as an apprentice to his parents and found art to be his life's calling. After serving in the U.S. Army during WWII, Paul trained in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumierein and in New York at the Art Students League. He became a NACAL member artist, being sent to record his experiences on-site in Vietnam. He was on of the only artists selected for NASA recovery ships for the Gemini 5 and the Apollo 12, and the Apollo 17 lunar missions. He was thrilled to be able to ride in the recovery vessell that retreived the "frog men."He said they were some of the most exciting opportunities an artist can hope for. As a teacher, he founded the art department at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, where he served as Artists-residence for years.

As a portrait artist, he painted dozens of elected officials and dignitaries throughout northern New Jersey and beyond, including a memorial painting of George H.W. Bush at Bush Presidential Library. His work hangs in a vast number of private collections, as well as the United States Naval Historical Center, the Montclair Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

A volume of his life and work, 'Paul Ortlip: His Heritage and his Art written by M. Stephen Doherty, editor of American Artist magazine, was published in 1982.