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By Laura Ruby
Special to the Rappahannock News
Nationally recognized for his work in several media, Sperryville artist Patton Wilson loves to work with different methods of creativity. At the same time, he is deliberate and dedicated to the technical aspects of art. This interesting juxtaposition of art and science creates eyecatching still-lifes and intricate landscapes.
A painter in the realist tradition, Wilson explores egg tempera, oil, casein, and watercolor» juggling the media to evoke just the right emotion for a given piece.
“Art is one of the few professions that throws you something new every day. I work in almost every painting medium that there is. I think it’s because I’m easily bored,” said Wilson, who has called Rappahannock County home for 22 years.
While the medium changes from painting to painting, Wilson has focused for the last several years on still-life arrangements. He devotes large amounts of time to considering the setup of elements before he begins to paint them.
At a given time, there may be 10 still-life set ups in Wilson’s brimming, sky-lit studio, each in a different stage of progress. Wilson uses color on the walls of the bustling work space (Renaissance Red and Desert Twilight) to serve as background for his work, though most of the space is painted in a neutral green mid-tone, which he finds helpful in warming the northern light that fills the space.
Wilson is fascinated with the technical process of the trade. He has done extensive research into ancient methods of creativity, and takes great pleasure in the chemistry and cooking that are required to mold raw materials into painting supplies. “We’ve made our own paint and panels. I’ve just been fascinated by the process,” Wilson said, describing archaic methods of mixing and cooking hide glue and chalk.
“There’s a reason most people don’t do it,” he said jokingly.
More recently, he renewed his interest in painting landscapes and cloudscapes. Those, he said, are largely inspired by Rappahannock County. He enjoys the time constraints of working from life, painting scenes of Turkey Mountain and Skyline Drive’s Big Meadows while the light is just right.
“I work from life. I don’t work from photographs and it does give you a different sense of space and time,” said Wilson, whose dark hair and mustache reveal a bit of his Native American heritage.
*d<zte&t accolades
But it was a still-life painting, entitled Triad, done in casein that earned Wilson his latest accolade—the grand prize in the National Casein Paintings Competition. Casein is a quick-drying, aqueous medium that uses a milk-based binding agent. One of the most durable mediums known to man, the medium dates back to the cave man, appealing to
See ARTIST, Page B2
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