Carolyn Patten
Most of my lifetime has been spent working with words, until I took a painting class as a lark a few years ago. It was a revelation — a direct conduit to the surprising depth of expression that goes beyond words and touches the heart of intuition. As Henri Matisse wrote: “If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” It’s not an exaggeration to write that art has saved my life, and enlarges it every day.
I work with watercolor, oils, ink and acrylics, always striving for the best combination of saturated color and detail. The images come from dreams, a walk in town, a conversation. Often I take up brushes with a very specific vision and find that it changes as the painting takes form. The final version is not so much a creation of my own as it is a gift from the universe. The art simply moves through me.
It’s a daily discipline, with immeasurable rewards — the simple pleasures of color and line, the hard work of learning new techniques and materials, and the joy of sharing the results with the world.
updated 11/2018
