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Resume:
I, Pat Walker-Fields, was born at home, in Tippah County, Mississippi. My early years were spent in the tiny hamlet of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, a farm community in the Mississippi Delta. I love Mississippi, and the Delta, where my Father was a farmer, and my Mother was a poet. I delight in memories of family, Delta farm life, and wonderful friends. My Mother started my drawing education at an early age, and the artist was born, and my journey began.
A traditional college education left me longing. During these early years, I was unable to put a name to the style of painting that “took my breath away.” My instructors were interested in cultivating my talents in a different vein of painting, one I could not accept as me or my own.
Grant Honors
PAT WALKER has received Grants from:
Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc.
New York, NY 10013
MAC Mississippi Arts Commission
Jackson, MS
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
New York, New York. 10012
CAC Contemporary Arts Center
New Orleans, LA
After years of struggling to learn, I found the teachers and studied with some of the finest living master-instructors of our time. It was as if these mentors felt the intense desire I had for understanding, and they gave. I began my language of painting. My language of art resonated out of the struggle, and a beautiful understand of seeing as an artist-painter appeared. Many years later, I can look at my work and say, "very good, but I'm not finished yet!"
Language of Painting
The language of my art is motivated by my heart and soul. I work to manipulate elements of light and dark, known as representational “chiaroscuro": to imbue mystery and emotion in still life, portraits and landscapes. "I want the viewer to walk into the painting through the beauty of light, but leave enough mystery in the work to allow the viewer’s heart to feel something in their imagination." For me, an artist lives a quiet, relatively lonely existence. When you work, you cannot take the crowd with you. I love what I do. I love being an artist-painter on this "holiday on earth," happy with my struggles.
Accomplishments
As an artist, an oil painter, I have organized a Student's Art League for children. Taught a Gifted Program for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades at St. Clare Elementary in Waveland, Mississippi. I believe all children are born artists. Sometimes they speak the language of art better than adults comprehend. During these wonderful impressionable years, children have full artistic freedom, endless potential. I was blessed with art in first grade. I know it makes a difference, and I have a deep conviction for sharing my knowledge of art with children. I have taught oil painting classes and workshops for over 20 years, organized adult students, and brought other professional instructors, to the Mississippi to teach 5-day workshops; donated many paintings to numerous fund raising, charitable organizations and foundations including, but not limited to: American Heart Foundation, American Medical Association, PBS, AIDS Foundation, St. Clare, Coast Episcopal School, Fire House Gallery, Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, and many more. I was selected as one of Mississippi's Favorite Artists on three occasions by the American Medical Association, a blue ribbon winner of the PBS-TV, WYES, of New Orleans, Best in Show at Firehouse Gallery, Peoples Choice Award, and recipient of the Trans - American book cover award. I have been in numerous art publications, such as Southwest Art, and my work is in many private and corporate collections. I will continue to study and push myself with diligent work ethics, aspiring to be a better oil painter with every day I am blessed.
I am extremely proud to announce that I have been accepted in OPA Eastern Show....
Congratulations on your painting being accepted into this year’s 2008 OPA Eastern Regional Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils*
This year’s show will be held at Richland Fine Art in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, October 17 through November 15, 2008. The exhibition will feature some of OPA’s most outstanding artists in the Eastern Region.
Sincerely,
William A. Schneider OPA
Chair, Jury Selection Committee
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