Local artist Patricia Wilkes finds inspiration in the everyday moments around her. She often reaches for her phone to capture scenes that strike her as "memorable, unusual and beautiful."
Patricia has lived in Arkansas her whole life except for the four years she attended art school in St. Louis. In her time as an artist, she says she’s had a lot of training in drawing and painting the human figure, and that it is what serves as the basis for the pieces she creates and uses the classical tradition of painting.
“It’s never failed me,” she says, “Whenever I would have a painting problem, I would look to both old and contemporary masters for help.”
Patricia works with pastels, oils and acrylics, but prefers oil.
She feels that she can bring a great sense of reality into her paintings by using many layers of glaze over one another coupled with impasto, a painting technique in which the artist leaves the paint thick so the brush strokes are visible.
“I most love to paint portraits of children,” she says. “I like working on them, capturing their image and spirit.” Even more than this, she loves to see the joy it brings the families when they see the finished portrait and get to enjoy it every day.
For this month's “Stunning” cover, Patricia used her oldest daughter as inspiration.
“She had a great red dress, and I had a length of fabulous gold fabric, and we had a photo shoot, trying different poses,” she says.
The pose she eventually captured in the painting was her favorite one.
You can view more of Patricia's work at The Art Group Gallery and online at artgrouparkansas.com.