From now through January only, the Veronique Wantz Gallery will be featuring several paintings by painter Patton Blackwell.

Born in South Carolina and raised in Minnesota, Blackwell attended The Summit School in St. Paul and graduated from Macalester College in 1974 with a degree in Cultural Geography. She then went on to spend over a decade in Brazil, where she studied with painters Luiz Aquila, Claudio Kuperman, and John Nicholson.

Blackwell is an artist who is heavily influenced by her immediate surroundings. Drawing inspiration from the streets of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival as well as from extensive travels to Europe, Israel, Turkey, and North Africa, her work reflects the physical and imaginary scope of a life spent in exploration.

She absorbs landscapes spanning from the Aegean Sea to the rolling, green fields of South Carolina, and, in each brushstroke, emboldens them with emotion, intensity of color, and contrasts between light and dark. The result is beautiful, active, and impassioned, but also very controlled.

Blackwell’s art has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and has toured as part of the United States Art in Embassies program in Egypt, Qatar, Romania, Honduras, Guatemala, and Myanmar.

While her work continues to travel far and wide, she now calls Camden, South Carolina home, and she recently participated in St. Paul Academy’s annual Alumni/ae Reunion exhibition at the Harry M. Drake Gallery. We’re very happy to be presenting a selection of her paintings here on North Fifth street!