“Painting is a humbling endeavor. Painting the landscape all the more so as it is an artist’s imperfect interpretation of a perfect beauty. I paint the landscape not to ‘get it right’, but to express how it makes me feel. When successful, my work is a diary of my feelings in a special place and time. Through painting, this place becomes for me as much a sanctuary of emotion as of beauty.”
About
Art, in one form or another, has always been at the heart of Patricia Skinner’s life. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, her sensibilities were shaped by the colors and spirit of the wild, majestic landscape. From an early age, Patricia enjoyed experimenting with color—crayons, paints and pastels. Influenced and encouraged by her mother who loved the arts, she studied drawing, painting, piano and ballet throughout her childhood and adolescence.
Patricia left the Northwest to attend Georgetown University in Washington, DC. As a student, she enjoyed the rich cultural and international life of the city. Patricia spent part of her university years in Paris, studying at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre. She graduated cum laude with a BSLA in French and Linguistics, and a minor in Spanish.
Patricia rediscovered pastels while studying at the Art League in Alexandria, VA. She began to explore different techniques of working with pastels—applying washes of color and manipulating the pure pigment with a brush for painterly effects.
Patricia currently works as an artist, translator and editor. She is married to artist Bradley Stevens. The couple divides their time between the Virginia countryside, outside of Washington, DC and Patricia’s beloved Pacific Northwest. They enjoy traveling, sometimes painting on location, and always looking for inspiration in their wanderings.
Patricia is a signature member of the Northwest Pastel Society and Maryland Pastel Society, and regularly participates in juried competitions sponsored by pastel societies throughout the United States. She is honored to be represented by the Zenith Gallery in Washington, DC; Warm Springs Gallery in Warms Springs, VA; The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, VA; and Crow Valley Gallery in Eastsound, WA.
Article
Oldham, Pamela. "LETTING GO: Pastelist Patricia Skinner,” Elan Magazine. May 2006: 67-69. Print. VIEW
On Pastel
When I was a little girl, my mother would leave a bowl of crayons, watercolors, and scratch paper on a table for me to experiment with as she worked about the house. This was no ordinary bowl of crayons: scattered among the usual Crayolas were sticks of beautifully exotic pastels. I fell in love. I soon discovered I could blend the buttery sticks with my fingers, making layers of vibrant color, use them on top of my watercolors, or even liquefy them into paint.
Years later, my approach to pastels hasn’t really changed all that much. My crayon bowl sits prominently on my taboret, only now it is surrounded by hundreds of pastels. Sticks of pure pigment in every hue and color, they invite experimentation. I work with an array of pastels—from very hard to soft, crumbling chalk—on all kinds of surfaces with varying degrees of grit to capture the pigment.
My pastels are truly paintings, not drawings. I build layers of color, often beginning with watercolor washes or liquefying the pastel with turpentine and brush. I may do this many times, but usually leave a trace of earlier washes for transparency and luminosity. There is an exhilarating (but often terrifying) part of the process when the preliminary pastel is lost to the brush, and I’m no longer in control. The painting tells me where to go. My challenge is to listen.
– Patricia Skinner