Joyful, buoyant, vibrant, vital, bold, and alive are just some of the adjectives that come to mind when viewing a Brendan Loughlin painting. Brendan, a self taught artist who resides and paints in the picturesque town of Guilford, Connecticut, in just a few years has attracted the attention of fellow artists, the media and collectors from all over the US. He is a phenomenon—a person whose extraordinary life story, revolutionary new method of painting (Pastic™) and brilliantly colorful paintings all reflect the unique individual that is Brendan. In a sense, he is a sort of "Pied Piper"—whenever Brendan shows his work or makes an appearance, an aura of the happiness, of joy, is communicated to all.

It is astounding that Brendan's ascendance in the art world has happened at all. It is a story stranger than fiction. Much of Brendan's life was one obstacle to overcome after another dysfunctional childhood, two broken marriages, pennilessness and a bout of homelessness late in life, just to name a few. Despite all odds, never giving up, overcoming all setbacks, Brendan finally achieved his dream of becoming an artist. (He started to first paint at the age of 53!) The energetic optimism and determination that allowed him to eventually succeed is evident in his paintings.

Another major factor that helped mold Brendan into the unique artist that he is today is that of his new method of painting, called Pastac™. He has created a method of combining chalk pastels, painter's tints and B-I-N shellac to create works of bold, vibrant hues and rich textures not easily duplicated by conventional means of painting. When using Pastac™, the paintings dry quickly (within five minutes) and allow the artist to build texture without compromising the quality of the color. The result is paintings with brilliant colors that will never fade in sunlight.

The dramatic life journey, the invention of the Pastac™ process, the resilient and quirky personality—these all combine into the person that is Brendan and give rise to a unique artist of rare qualities. With his primitive and simple style, his floral, village, angel, ocean and landscape images capture an innocence, whimsy and beauty not easily duplicated by others. Make no mistake, there are many other artists out there that are of better technique and more complexity, but if you believe art is to enhance one's life by conveying vitality for life, a joy of living and the beauty of nature, then few rival the talents of Brendan.

Over the last few years Brendan's popularity has grown exponentially. The historic colonial town of Guilford, CT has allowed Brendan to place his fantastic images on various structures throughout the downtown area. Newspapers throughout New England have done many feature articles on Brendan, the man and the artist. The January 2008 issue of Yankee Magazine featured an article on Brendan, calling him Connecticut's modern-day Van Gogh. (Yankee Magazine has a national distribution that reaches two million people monthly). Brendan has appeared on CT Public TV teaching his Pastac™ method. He continues to teach Pastac™ to both professional and non-professional artists. As a result of all this publicity and word of mouth, people from all over the country have been descending on Guilford to buy his originals and to have him teach them Pastac™. Today Brendan continues to thrive, painting in his cherished town of Guilford.