September 17, 1925

Paul E. Maxwell, an artist and sculptor, was born into a farm family in Frost Prairie (Ashley County). Maxwell developed a stencil technique to create thickly textured and layered surfaces and objects of “stencil casting” that came to be known as “Maxwell Pochoir.” Maxwell’s family moved when he was nine years old to Bastrop, Louisiana, but he began at an early age to consider himself an artist and felt that the soil and environment around Frost Prairie may have influenced the kind of art he later developed. Maxwell has lectured, taught, and exhibited widely in Europe and the United States. One of his sculptures, “Regimenta,” is in the permanent collection of the Arkansas Arts Center.