Gallery: Patricia Watwood – The Great Nude

Artist Statement:

I am a contemporary figurative artist working in the classical tradition of oil painting. I use narrative structures like allegory and myth to explore meaning in our common experience. I create images to evoke our spiritual human presence and emotional connection through art. The nude is my primary subject, and is to me an enduring vessel for the exploration of the human condition. I use art history and narratives as a foil for expressing both my place in the lineage of art, and my contemporary experience, which contradicts the dominant cultural themes. My work prioritizes aesthetic principles, intellectual engagement, technical rigor and craft, and balances perception with design. They reflect my search for meaning and desire to connect with my subjects and viewers.

Biography:

Patricia Watwood has exhibited at galleries and institutions worldwide such as Hirschl & Adler and The Forbes Galleries in NYC, Galerie Albert Benamou in Paris, and John Pence in San Francisco. In 2012-2013, her work was viewed in China in an historic presentation of American painting, Contemporary American Realism, which opened at the Beijing World Art Museum, and visiting Dalien, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Shanghai. Watwood’s solo museum exhibit, Patricia Watwood: Myths & Individuals was on view in two venues in 2011-2012: St. Louis University Museum of Art, and The Forbes Galleries, NYC. In 2013, her work was included in the “Nocturnes” exhibit at the National Arts Club, and her solo show “Venus Apocalypse” at Dacia Gallery, NYC. Watwood earned her MFA with Honors from New York Academy of Art, and studied with Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier, and Ted Seth Jacobs at the Ecole Albert Defois in France. Watwood has been an adjunct professor of drawing at New York Academy of Art and has given lectures and workshops across the country, with The Teaching Studios of Art in Brooklyn, and The Portrait Society of America. She is a writer and blog contributor for American Artist and Artist Daily publications. In 2012, she produced an instructional DVD: Figure Painting: Realistic Skin Tone with Patricia Watwood, with Interweave Press.