Unique in his approach to both life and his art, Neil Patterson credits the appeal of his vibrant, impressionistic oils to three things: his passion for painting, his child-like approach to color and his ability to paint feelings rather than merely replicating what he sees.
Born and raised in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Patterson first began to take his dream of becoming an artist seriously during elementary school. His fascination with the reproduction of a painting by Tom Thomson, whose bold use of color and ability to infuse elements of the landscape with symbolic meaning, sparked his desire to create art. At the age of 13 Neil created his first masterpiece on a canvas belt he stole from his father’s combine. In later years he worked as an architectural draftsman while also running a thriving pottery business. After developing painful tendonitis in his hands Patterson stopped throwing pots and returned to his long-held dream of becoming a fine artist.
Neil Patterson paints straight from the tube, mixing the pigments directly on the canvas and allowing their thick, peanut butter-like consistency to guide his brush in creating bold, sweeping strokes and impasto texture that have become his hallmark.
“Applied this thickly, the paint leaves grooves that create areas of light and shadow,” he says. “The positive aspect of this technique is that one painting can become 50 paintings, depending on the light.”
