SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

Patricia Clayton

I grew up on a lake in Michigan and drew compulsively as a child in a home full of oil paintings by my grandmother.  However, I chose to go into medicine when my father developed cancer during my senior year of high school.  

After practicing medicine as a family doctor in Seattle for twenty years, with much of that time spent in community health centers, in 1997 I devoted more and more time to painting.   I took portrait and figure painting classes at Gage Academy of Art as well as portrait and plein air workshops elsewhere.  

I’m fascinated by the glow of transparent oil paints and often begin with an intuitive underpainting using thinned paint manipulated by my finger covered by a piece of T-shirt, using brushstrokes, rag blots and fingernail accents to develop the essence of the subject.  It’s a very physical interaction with the canvas.

The final layer of thick paint is applied using a palette knife.  The color is strong and clean and the texture is dynamic.  Sometimes trees and water become more alive from the side when the texture of the knife strokes adds to the impression of waves, rocks, tangled branches and footprints in the snow without being literal.  

My goal is to inspire the spirit and imagination of the viewer and to share my experience of awe.