Patricia Watwood

Patricia Watwood (born 1971) is an American figurative painter living in Brooklyn, NY.

Life

Patricia Watwood was born in 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father is Dr. Kenneth R. Smith, Jr., who was the founder and Director of the Division of Neurosurgery at St. Louis University Hospital. Watwood earned her BFA in Theatre Design from Trinity University in San Antonio, and her MFA in Painting from New York Academy of Art. She studied with Jacob Collins, and was a founding member of the Water Street Atelier. Her other teachers include Ted Seth Jacobs, Vincent Desiderio, Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Randy Mellick, and Steven Assael.^[1]

Work

Watwood is a leading figure in the contemporary classical movement.^[2] She is a classical figurative oil painter who prioritizes aesthetic principles and technical rigor, balancing perception and design.^[3] Her subject matter is the figure, most commonly the nude, and uses allegory and mythology, often with contemporary urban settings. Her compositions unite a classical aesthetic with a modern sensibility.^[4] Arising out of the revived atelier movement,^[5] her compositions combine a modern color palette with academic draftsmanship and traditional painting techniques “with the intention of reinstating the role of beauty in art.” ^[6]

In 2011-2012 St. Louis University Museum of Art, and The Forbes Galleries hosted Watwood’s solo museum exhibit, Patricia Watwood: Myths & Individuals.^[7] Her paintings were exhibited with the exhibit Contemporary American Realism, the first large presentation of American Realist paintings in China,^[8] at the Beijing World Art Museum. The tour traveled to Dalien, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Shanghai throughout 2012 and 2013. Watwood is the Vice-President of the America China Oil Painting Artist’s League (ACOPAL), which helped organize the exhibit.

Public collections

Harvard University^[9]
St. Louis City Hall
The Forbes Collection
Weill-Cornell Medical College^[10]
St. Louis University Medical School

References

^ Caporale, Wende (June–July 2013). "A Day in the Life of an Artist: Patricia Watwood". International Artist (91): 26–29.
^ Panero, James (May 2, 2012). "Painting Outside the Box". The New Criterion, May 2.
^ "Patricia Watwood - Greening Gallery". Greening Gallery. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
^ Parks, John A. (May 2010). "Contemporary & Classical". American Artist. 74 (809): 36–43.
^ Duncan, James (February 2012). "Patricia Watwood: Myths and Individuals". American Artist. 76 (826): 53.
^ Kralik, Brandon (June 4, 2013). "Contemporary Classical Painting is Still Growing". Huffington Post.
^ Trippi, Peter (December 2011). "Patricia Watwood: Making the Timeless Timely". Fine Art Connoisseur. 8 (6): 36–40.
^ Tao, Zuoqi (September 15, 2012). "American Contemporary Realist Painting Scale for the First Time in Beijing". Beijing Daily. Archived from the original on April 30, 2014.
^ Holden, Constance (February 15, 2002). "Random Samples". Science. 295: 1227. doi:10.1126/science.295.5558.1227a. S2CID 220102753.
^ "Dr. Russel Patterson and the History of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell". weill.cornell.edu.