 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT on REBECCA PATRICK
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Rebecca Patrick is a talented Austin artist who has joined the Art on 5th family this year. Her acrylic paintings feature emotive flowers depicted in rich colors and thick textures. These incredibly tactile pieces play with Impressionism and abstraction, and many gallery visitors have said her flowers look like butterflies. Typically, the gallery does not take on works of art that feature floral subject matter, but Rebecca Patrick’s technique and evocative style blew us away when we saw her work for the first time. She studied graphic art in college but has since shifted her career towards fine art.
How did you make the shift from graphic design to fine art?
Actually, I shifted from fine art to graphic design and then back to fine art. Here's how: As a child I used to fill up sketch pads and drew and doodled on every blank spot of every sheet of paper that I would have in front of me. However, I didn't realize that I had any talent until my first art class in high school where we were taught how to draw. I absolutely fell in love with art after this discovery, feeling a sense of purpose and direction.
My transition to graphic design came when I had to decide my college career. At that point I wasn't sure if just anyone could make a living in fine art so I chose computer graphic design instead. While digital design was a technological channel for me to express my artistic side, I never lost touch with the non-digital creativity. Many of my college classes involved hands on painting, drawing, sculpting.
In 2005, my (future) husband asked me to create a painting for him. He shipped me my first containers of paint, canvases and brushes. I sat there on my dorm room floor with the blank canvas with music playing in the background and started to create my first abstract piece. I now enjoy the balance in my life of graphic design and the physical creation of my paintings, both as my part-time jobs.
What are your influences? What gets you inspired? Have these things changed over time or have they stayed the same?
 It's hard to explain, but it just happens. Especially with my florals, the ideas for the canvas come right out of my head. I set up my easel and take all the tops off at least 12 different containers of paint. Then get out my palette knives, turn on some music and stare into that blank canvas. I try to envision a color palette and think of how I can create something different than anything else I’ve done. Maneuvering the palette knife in certain ways creates this amazing texture and color synthesis that has really inspired me to create different shapes, whereas prior to this, I couldn’t make the same forms with a paintbrush. So changing over from brushes to palette knives has really influenced my style.
Your titles are quite evocative, for instance: Unravel Me, Give Me Release, and In This Silence. Where do these come from?
Music lyrics! I listen to music every time I paint. Some lyrics just stick out to me. Each painting has its own set of lyrics that I've focused on. I hear beautiful emotions being expressed in lyrics, and I try to translate those emotions into my florals. While each painting is different, I see my flowers as possessing this organic sense of movement and sensuality, playfulness, life and purpose. I do not choose the title at random for each painting. The title is chosen because it was the lyric that I heard at the time I was painting. Sarah McLachlan electronic remixes, her originals, Muse, and Delirious are a few of my must haves on my playlist right now.
What have been some challenges you’ve faced as an artist and in your art making process?
Being confident in my artwork and finding a true style that I’m passionate about. I started with basic abstract art, but that usually only appeals to certain audience. I dabbled a bit in landscapes and attempted a cityscape. Although I have been improving my technique over the years, I've never felt confident in what others thought of my work.
Even though art is about personal expression and not about anyone else’s opinion, I still desired that positive feedback from others. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I had an idea to paint Impressionistic flowers over an abstract painting I had previously started. I had a friend buy it before I was even finished with it! As I continued painting and evolving my style of the florals and getting a hand on my newly purchased palette knives, I immediately realized how much joy it brought me to paint each floral painting. I hadn’t quite had this connection about any of my other styles. I now have found the confidence that I was missing. And I am now able to carry that into any style of artwork I create.
When the gallery’s owner and director (Joe Sigel and Jodi Brauner) asked you to try doing a cityscape, how did you approach that challenge?
I had only completed a handful of cityscapes in the past and although I paint with an impressionistic eye, creating a cityscape is a lot more challenging than my florals! Every building has to be recognizable by name and there is a lot more precision and detail. And with Austin’s ever-changing skyline, this adds another dimension to the challenge. In doing research for this project, I came across the work of a local photographer who had taken spectacular wide angle shots of the 2010 skyline, both at night and during the day. I love painting from the night shots because of all the color and chaos of the traffic lights. I use the day shots to make out the detail of the buildings. Before any paint goes onto the canvas, I sketch out the skyline first. This technique is exclusive to my skylines.
Where do you see your artistic style evolving?
I would like to take more fine art classes to grow in certain areas that I’m not aware of since most of my painting techniques have been self-taught. I've never worked with oils before and would like to test them out someday. Creating very large pieces of work are also in my sights. I want to keep creating fine art that people can connect with -- paintings that have that "wow" factor when you look at them. And to maintain that "wow" factor, I need to keep viewers on their toes. Learning new techniques, experimenting with different canvas layouts, and mixing up my ipod soundtracks should drive this evolution. For every new piece of artwork that I create, I try to add something new or something "deeper" to it. I'm my biggest critic. This has allowed me to always push myself in new directions artistically.
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