“All my art is in some way about other art, even if the other art is cartoons.” — Roy Lichtenstein
Patricia Watson is a highly motivated educator with a successful track record for teaching art to elementary, middle, high school, and undergraduate students. She is also experienced in coordinating and managing arts programs. As an artist, she has most recently concentrated on illustrations of famous faces.
“I have always enjoyed portraiture drawing and painting. I decided to try high contrast portraits using sharpie markers as my choice of medium. It is permanent - with no margin for error.”
The technique invests even the most ordinary pictures with an iconic sensibility. Some of the subjects lend themselves very easily to this quality – it is arguable that ANY picture of Muhammad Ali or Salvador Dali is inherently iconic and, the portrait of 1970’s songwriter and musician Leon Russell, represents the moment he transitioned from session musician to Pop Star. Watson is affecting a deliberate layer of affectionate kitsch on images of individuals who have risen to a certain status in the Pop Culture firmament, harkening back to a period in which illustration dominated the media. In an age when such things seem all but forgotten, it would not be at all difficult to imagine these images on magazine or album covers. Ask your parents.
"Ali" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper
Watson also paints traditionally, and has recently been experimenting with abstract painting, but these sharpie portraits are popular with the public, and she is often asked to do commissions using the technique.
Watson is currently teaching at Meyzeek Middle School in Louisville, and she is a former Elementary and Middle Grades Art Instructor, Louisville Visual Art’s Children’s Fine Art Classes (CFAC).
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA with a major in visual communications, Kean University, New Jersey; MAT - Teaching Art K-12, University of Louisville
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artchikdiva/
"Chris" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper
"Dali" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper
"Gregg" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper
"Leon" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.
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