ABOUT

Ron Patterson studied art at the Central Academy of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio under the distinguished painter of Western Art, Jackson Grey Story. In addition to being an acrylic artist, Patterson is also a graphic designer and illustrator.

ARTIST STATEMENT

As an artist, what interests me most is portraying relationships through the essence of the moment. My subject matter centers on the joys of life, love, music and dance. I work predominately on a grand scale in a vibrant, colorful manner with loose sweeping brushwork in acrylic on canvas. The dynamic expression of movement captures the joyful naiveté of love, whether for a woman, a man, a new dog…or the simple complexity found outside my backdoor in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Most of my people don't have faces; they are merely joyful shapes and movements loving life's pleasures without really seeing. My animals always have faces because I feel they do not have the blind love humans have—loyalty; yes, pretense of hope and love; yes, blind love; no. Animals see right through the human animal into their soul.

I use the phrase "Black and White in Colors" because every canvas I do starts as stark white or deep black and I sketch black or white lines on them. I don’t use black anywhere in my paintings, however—I don’t even own a tube of black. I think in black and white, I thumbnail in black and white, and then the piece gradually becomes a riot of colors as the brush calls for them. The black and white disappears and the colors take over.