Patricia Watwood

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:26:19 +0000

Anakin Padawan, 2009. Oil on canvas, 44 x 28 inches.
Film director George Lucas invited 120 artists to create new work inspired by the Star Wars mythology. The results were published in Star Wars: visions (Abrams, 2010). For my contribution, I envisioned a formal portrait of Anakin Skywalker a couple of years into his training as a Jedi. The boy is standing over the remnants of a spider droid after his first foray into battle. At this liminal moment, Anakin is a boy and a soldier, beautiful and fierce, honorable and angry. He contains both the innocence and the darkness he will eventually embrace.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:26:02 +0000

Annunciation, 2006. Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 56 x 26 inches.
In theology Eve usually represents the fallen woman and Mary the redemption from sin. Standard European representations of these women rarely examine their corporal identity or envision a multi-ethnic pantheon. My figure fuses Eve and Mary, and rejects a dichotomy between bodily sin and spiritual purity.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:25:46 +0000

Bacchus, 2008, Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 38 x 36 inches.
A modern Bacchus invites you to enjoy his hedonism and sensuality. Is his pursuit of pleasure and lack of restraint a behavior that leads to the happiness you desire?

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:25:26 +0000

Bathsheba, 2001, Oil on canvas, 46 x 46 inches.
I made Bathsheba in homage to Rembrandt’s eponymous painting. Like the great master, I wished to show the humanity of king David’s beloved at a poignant moment. The Biblical monarch had Bathsheba’s husband killed so that they could wed. Bathsheba seems lost in sadness—has she just learned of her husband’s death and her inescapable complicity?

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:25:12 +0000

Brooklyn Self Portrait, 2003, Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches.
The design of this self-portrait reflects my great affection for the paintings of Jean-August-Dominique ingres (1780 – 1867) and the 18th century French style. The restrained grey palette, the somber sky, and small fragment of Brooklyn skyline refer to this neoclassical period, with an updated location and time.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:24:53 +0000

Claudia, 2001, Oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches.
Like many of my simple portraits, this painting arose out of a deep interest in the spiritual quality of my model, Claudia. Her face seemed to capture the vulnerability of adolescence, yet she had the wise eyes of an adult. I wanted to fix on canvas her transition out of youth, with its complex freight of fragility and hope.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:24:36 +0000

Creation, 2006, Oil on canvas, 36 x 28 inches.
I was seven months into my pregnancy with my second daughter, Jocelyn, and was thinking about creation in general. An artist’s process involves conscious thought, work, and effort, but the outcome is equally unforeseen, unconscious, and unknown—as with children.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:24:12 +0000

Dorothy, 2010, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 inches.
Dorothy is the beloved church lady of my congregation. Her face speaks volumes about the love, openness, humor, and fortitude that she has learned in her life of faith. I included the painting in an exhibition about individuals in my community, Portraits 20/10, at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:23:53 +0000

Dr. Kenneth R. Smith, Jr., 2010, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches. Collection of St. Louis University Hospital.
My father, Kenneth Smith, was head of the division of neurosurgery at St. Louis University for 38 yrs. After he retired in 2005, the division commissioned this portrait to hang in the new center for Skull Base Surgery at Saint Louis University hospital. I wanted his stern and savvy spirit to continue to preside over the doctors in the department.

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:23:34 +0000

Faith in the Wilderness, 2011, Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches.
Faith in the Wilderness is an allegory about my motives as an artist. The model represents the unattainable beauty of perfect painting. The landscape is the urban jungle around me, that is the heritage of western civilization. The graffiti says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Faith is required to traverse the uncharted distance between aspiration and reality. The wilderness is many-faceted—uncertain prospects, an unmapped course, the complex art world, or the impossible passage across the cheek between nose and ear. I pick up my palette and keep traveling.