“All my art is in some way about other art, even if the other art is cartoons.” — Roy Lichtenstein

Patricia Watson is a highly motivated educator with a successful track record for teaching art to elementary, middle, high school, and undergraduate students. She is also experienced in coordinating and managing arts programs. As an artist, she has most recently concentrated on illustrations of famous faces.

“I have always enjoyed portraiture drawing and painting. I decided to try high contrast portraits using sharpie markers as my choice of medium. It is permanent - with no margin for error.”

The technique invests even the most ordinary pictures with an iconic sensibility. Some of the subjects lend themselves very easily to this quality – it is arguable that ANY picture of Muhammad Ali or Salvador Dali is inherently iconic and, the portrait of 1970’s songwriter and musician Leon Russell, represents the moment he transitioned from session musician to Pop Star. Watson is affecting a deliberate layer of affectionate kitsch on images of individuals who have risen to a certain status in the Pop Culture firmament, harkening back to a period in which illustration dominated the media. In an age when such things seem all but forgotten, it would not be at all difficult to imagine these images on magazine or album covers. Ask your parents.

*"Ali" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper*

Watson also paints traditionally, and has recently been experimenting with abstract painting, but these sharpie portraits are popular with the public, and she is often asked to do commissions using the technique.

Watson is currently teaching at Meyzeek Middle School in Louisville, and she is a former Elementary and Middle Grades Art Instructor, Louisville Visual Art’s Children’s Fine Art Classes (CFAC).

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA with a major in visual communications, Kean University, New Jersey; MAT - Teaching Art K-12, University of Louisville
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artchikdiva/

*"Chris" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper*

*"Dali" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper*

*"Gregg" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper*

*"Leon" by Patricia Watson, 11x14in, sharpie on paper*

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Painting, Ceramics

Vignette: David Keator

Josh Jenkins · November 3, 2016

*A photograph of David Keator taken by Geoff Carr.*

“Resurgence” by David Keator, 30x38in, oil on canvas (2014), $1000 | BUY NOW — *“Resurgence” by David Keator, 30x38in, oil on canvas (2014), $1000 | BUY NOW*

During the first part of his life as an artist, David Keator was celebrated for unique ceramic work: traditional forms such as vessels and pots featuring details of great delicacy, but also furniture pieces. Dorothy Weil, writing in Cincinnati Magazine in June 1986 describes how Keator’s work at that time, “…brings out the elegant side of Art Deco. His tables are crafted of wood, marble, and porcelain, and have formal, classic, straight lines and pretty Deco blues and pinks. Humor and whimsy come out when Keator decides to throw in zigzag legs or create a table and vase in one.”

Keator worked in Louisville for many years, including a stint as Professor of Ceramics at the Louisville School of Art. Later he moved to Florida and, in his last years, turned to painting when arthritis made the intricacy of his ceramics work a challenge. In a statement from 2013, Keator talked about the change in medium: “Paint became my new fascination and ‘creative outlet.’ My paintings are non-representational. They are a search for the impression or expression of objects or subjects in a spontaneously responsive manner.”

Perhaps there is more of a relationship between the work with which Keator made his reputation and the work with he makes his last artistic statements. The sophisticated surface treatments on clay give way to a more abstract but no less sophisticated development of the painted canvas surface. Curvilinear figures and jewel-like geometric shapes echo the Deco qualities Weil refers to 30 years ago. The nature of the work may have changed over time, but the character of it remains consistent to Keator’s overall aesthetic.

A silent auction of David Keator’s paintings will be held at Headliner’s Music Hall in Louisville November 6 from 4:00-6:00pm. All proceeds will go to Louisville Visual Arts and the Louisville Fund for the Arts.

David Keator
(1951-2016)

"Abrupt Turbulence" by David Keator, 15x20.5in, oil on canvas (2014), $600 | BUY NOW — *"Abrupt Turbulence" by David Keator, 15x20.5in, oil on canvas (2014), $600* *| BUY NOW*

“Fallen Skies” by David Keator, 13x31in, oil on canvas, $950 | BUY NOW — *“Fallen Skies” by David Keator, 13x31in, oil on canvas, $950 | BUY NOW*

“Gathering Impulses” by David Keator, 10.5x29.5, oil on canvas (2014) $800 | BUY NOW — *“Gathering Impulses” by David Keator, 10.5x29.5, oil on canvas (2014) $800 | BUY NOW*

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Please contact josh@louisvillevisualart.org for further information on advertising through Artebella. — *Please contact* *josh@louisvillevisualart.org* *for further information on advertising through Artebella.*

magazine

Vignette: Patricia Watson

“All my art is in some way about other art, even if the other art is cartoons.” — Roy Lichtenstein

Vignette: David Keator