ARTIST STATEMENT
Painter and art critic Wyndam Lewis wrote “Art is the expression of an enormous preference.” It seems a preference isn’t something you need to explain or justify. We just love what we love. My preference’s - what I find visually engaging and beautiful, have stayed remarkably stable over my forty years of painting. The morning light on the stark pavement of the L.A. River still takes my breath away. I remain interested in those older parts of cities even as I realize that they are vanishing at ever increasing speed. I have had a few recent visual surprises - who knew swimming pools would become illuminated with L.E.D. lights, that can segue through the entire color spectrum. When an artist chooses to make a painting of a particular place, the message to the viewer is “I find this to be important”. In these places I have chosen, I think the attraction goes beyond the particulars of of patterns of light and dark and color to the emotions these places evoke for me. In my previous statement I wrote that my paintings “set the stage for viewers to bring their imaginations and private meanings, made special by my selection and attention. Two years ago a group of Santa Barbara poets composed poems inspired by my paintings. The poems and artwork were published in a book titled: “Elsewhere Paradise”. I was profoundly honored and delighted that these talented artists would use my work as a point of departure. They responded to my preferences with ideas and obsessions of their own. I have titled this show “Darkness, Dawn”. It is a show of mostly nocturnes with a few sunrises. The year 2020 has indeed been a dark year, but I hope now in 2021 we are in an emerging dawn. |
BIOGRAPHY
Patricia Chidlaw received her BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has exhibited extensively on the West Coast and at numerous art fairs throughout the US. In 2014, she was the subject of a solo exhibition, Realm of the Commonplace - Paintings by Patricia Chidlaw, at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, NV. Her work appears in many private collections and has been featured in THE Magazine, ArtScene, Southwest Art, Artweek, and on KCET. She lives and works in Santa Barbara. |