Patty Richards

I love faces. That’s how the paintbrush made its way into my hand in the beginning. That first watercolor class in portrait painting changed everything. Something in me opened, and the creative stirrings had to manifest. I needed to express, to paint, to let it out.

When I paint, it’s as if I’m not even the one holding the brush. There’s an intuition, an “other force”, that interprets the subject or notion. Before I know it, the canvas, or paper, is loosely layered with brushed or splashed color. The work that I do is not about producing a “pretty picture”. It’s about discovery, freedom and the natural human reactions to abstract, often emotional, representations.

Somewhere in my creative process, a questioning happens: subtle, sublime and without conscious effort. I find I need to get out of the way of the painting and allow the piece to “speak its truth”.

Whether it’s through the layered washes of painted portraits or the wildly intuitive textures found in my non-representational work, I invite you to explore your own responses to the questions asked, adding your own individual experience to the meaning of the piece.