Honoring the Artist: Michael Patterson

This week's cover artist, Michael Patterson, is no "Johnny come lately," painting beach scenes in recent years simply because they are commercially viable. He has been a successful artist for the last thirty years; much of that time has been devoted to his cherished subject: the beach.

The following conversation took place by phone as Mr. Patterson was finishing a swim in the river at his Connecticut home. His wife of three years, Jessica, could be heard in the background at one point saying goodbye before she picked up some relatives at the airport. It was a typical summer day, and Mr. Patterson was obviously enjoying the setting and his family ties.

Q: What is it about the beach that draws you to it after all these years?

A: It's the solitary splendor of the place, a place under the sun. The beach is a symbol. And there are people on it. That's very important to me.

Q: Are your beaches any ones in particular?

A: No, they are universal. They could be from Florida or Montauk or the South of France, all places I have lived or visited.

Q: How did you get to France?

A: It was my grandfather, Howard Ashman Patterson, who was my primary inspiration. He was a painter, and I lived with his art on our walls when I was growing up and even to this day. I study them daily. I went to France to find the places he had painted, the villages, markets.

Q: Your grandfather had quite a life. He moved to Santa Fe after France to paint Native American life. In fact, your father was born on a reservation. Do you plan on pursuing your grandfather's legacy in New Mexico, too?

A: Yes. I plan on going to the Southwest to paint, especially the mountains, their spiritual splendor, their symbolic sense.

Q: There is another kind of sense that interests you as well. You said all your paintings deal with relationships between people.

A: Yes, in my musician series, for example, people are connected to each other. I think it's important that individuals can express themselves by music, dance. This one painting I did of a solo female singer with her guitar says it all.

Q: The female as a symbol is not that common in the kind of paintings you do.

A: God's best work is the female. My wife, Jessica, appears in some of my beach paintings.

Q: For you, how is art and music connected?

A: A note in music can only be harmonious when it's combined with other notes. The same with color interacting with other colors in a painting.

Q: How has your style evolved or changed over the years?

A: When I studied in Europe, I used to literally paint what I saw. In my beach series, I compose my own images. I make them my own.

Q: I'm curious. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A: A musician or maybe I would go into social work. Or maybe the ministry.

Q: That makes sense considering your interest in people and the spiritual side of things. How do these interests relate to your art? In other words, what would you like people to take away from your paintings?

A: I want people to realize how fortunate we all are, to give them hope about our lives instead of hopelessness and separateness. Our lives have great value.

- Marion Wolberg Weiss

Mr. Patterson' s work is on view at Greenport's South Street Gallery until Aug. 9. He will also be in the Montauk Outdoor Art Show on Aug. 18. You may contact him directly at www.pattersongalleries.com

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