About the Artist

BIO

San Francisco Bay Area-based oil painter, Patricia Jones, creates energetic Impressionistic paintings that highlight her view of the natural world.  With a focus on everyday objects and familiar surroundings, such as a head of garlic or views from a daily commute, she breathes new life into often-overlooked subjects.  Her many years of study under Russian and Californian Impressionists influence her use of thick paint and loose brush strokes, and her work straddles the line between representation and abstraction. Patricia has an MBA from Stanford University and after a career in business, turned her attention to art.  She has exhibited widely throughout the Bay Area as well as across the U.S. and is represented by Portola Art Gallery in Menlo Park.

ARTIST STATEMENT

When I look at the world around me, I see paint - thick, juicy, paint.  I work in oils because their creamy texture allows me to express what I am seeing better than any other medium.  I am on a mission to take under-appreciated subjects and infuse them with vitality.  My work focuses on the natural world, and I am constantly captivated by the landscapes, people, plants and animals I see around me.  Subjects as timeless as the golden hills of California or as charming as a boisterous stalk of bok choy inspire my creativity.  Using thick paint, energetic brush strokes and a variety of unorthodox tools such as spatulas, knives, twigs and scrapers, I re-create these images with a distinctive viewpoint.

I have made three trips to Russia to view and train with Impressionist masters who have strongly influenced my work.  In addition, I have studied extensively under California Impressionists, such as Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt, and in numerous workshops from American masters such as C.W. Mundy, Milt Kobayashi and Hedi Moran.

My goal is to share with the viewer the world I am seeing and entice them to see it too.  As I work, my subjects do not always behave.  They slip and slide in and out of representation, sometimes veering off into abstraction, and it is my mission to wrestle them back into some semblance of reality.  The result of this skirmish is an emotional response to what I see rather than a literal interpretation.

Painting the emotion evoked by a subject, as opposed to its literal representation, strikes a deep, resonant chord within me. This endeavor forms the core of my creative process.