We were lucky to catch up with Jeremiah Patterson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jeremiah , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When it comes to learning my craft, drawing is at the center of my journey. I have been working as an artist for over 30 years, and am blessed to have gotten an early start. I am the son of an artist, William Patterson, who taught me the fundamentals of drawing starting at a very young age. Learning how to draw takes time and effort, and I don’t believe there is any way to speed up the learning of this essential skill. Drawing is, in my opinion, the foundation of being an artist. My dad’s lessons on drawing have been absolutely essential to everything I do, whether it be in the stage of planning a painting or later in the final execution of that painting. Drawing is at he heart of everything creative for me. To break it down, the essentials are learning how to draw a form’s basic gesture, structure, contour and cross-contour, light/shadow and form, and (perhaps the most important) how to view the relationship of that form in perspective and in space. Learning all of this takes practice. I know many artists try to skip this learning of drawing fundamentals, thinking drawing is just a matter of picking up a few illusionistic tricks or that drawing is only needed to put down the shapes of your composition before painting. To that end, I also know some artists (who often haven’t dedicated themselves to learning drawing skills) resort to things such as tracing photographs to start a painting or composition. While tracing a photo does a good job of putting down a basic map of a composition, it doesn’t allow you as an artist to really study the form and space you are trying to paint or see. The time it takes to free-hand draw something from observation is time spent with your subject, getting to know it, seeing into its core. Drawing is in fact a dialogue with your subject, and learning to draw is learning how to see. During the time spent drawing, your mind can fantasize and wander about all sorts of things regarding your subject, and all of that gets into the artwork. Again, it takes time….but it doesn’t take forever. Once you learn the basics, you enter a lifetime where you continue to learn more and more about the life around you and how to draw it. Learning never ends, and you always have a day’s work as long as you have a few materials to draw and something in your life in front of you to see.

The greatest obstacle in learning more is not staying in practice with making one’s art, in my case drawing or painting. I try to draw and/or paint every day, and I strongly advocate to strive to make the practice of your art a regular and daily part of your life.

Jeremiah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I live in Deerfield, MA with my wife Julie and my two daughters Anna and Melanie….along with my dog, Latte. As said earlier, I’ve been working as a professional artist in painting and drawing for over 30 years now. My main medium for painting is watercolor, and I also work with Egg Tempera on occasion. I am a representational painter, and you would likely find my work associated within the genre of American Realism. I work directly from life and paint what life looks like to me. Also, as mentioned earlier, I began painting and drawing at a very young age, under the wing of my father in his studio. I became serious about pursuing a career as an artist in high school, and I entered college and directed my study towards an art degree. I receive my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from UMASS, Amherst and subsequently pursued my Masters of Fine Arts, also in painting, from The Hartford Art School – University of Hartford. The Hartford Art School hired me as a full-time Professor of Foundation directly after finishing my MFA there. For those that may not know, Foundation is the name given to first-year program of study in most professional art schools. I’ve been a full-time member of the Hartford Art School faculty since 2000. So, one aspect of what I do is to educate the next generation of artists as a college professor.

As far as my professional life as a painter, toward the end of my study in college at UMASS, Amherst, I began to show and sell my work in galleries commercially. Being represented by commercial galleries began in my senior year of college and continued for over 20 years. A highlight was being represented in New York City by the Sherry French Gallery, who specialized in handling American Realism. All of my years in working with galleries has allowed me to meet many of my collectors and to build collector/artist relationships. I was with the Sherry French Gallery from 1995 until 2009 when she sadly had to close the doors of the gallery. Since 2009, I have worked without gallery representation and have instead directly worked with my followers and collectors. I continue to regularly show my work and create pieces through private commissions.

In addition, I also have worked with my close friend, Fred Wessel, since 1999, to build a small business to offer painting workshops in Italy to artists each summer. We offer one workshop in Italy each summer, which has allowed us to bring over 100 artists to Italy to study painting with us over the past 20+ years.

I am most proud of the numerous exhibitions into which I’ve been invited to show, and all the relationships I’ve built. I am also very proud of the longevity I’ve had in maintaining a creative life and my ability to adapt to changes that have come about with the ups and downs that are inevitable.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is having the independence to make each day my own. I am also simply so blessed to be able to draw each day, and as one of my father’s former teachers once told him, “To make a living with my brush”. I have to pinch myself sometimes to realize that I get to make pictures for a living. It is also incredibly rewarding to share my work and in doing so meet many new people who become followers and supporters. I am very fortunate to have had many wonderful supporters of my work, especially my wife and family who have been there for every step and all the highs and lows.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I find occasionally that non-creative individuals do not understand the hours and hours that are dedicated to our craft and making our work, and the level of passion we put into our artwork. It envelops literally every aspect of our lives. The time clock of an artist never really goes off as the creative mind is always active. Days of work can turn into nights (and late nights) very easily. Work does not just follow you home, it is home and with you 24/7! However, I really cannot blame non-creative people altogether for not understanding this, because as artists we often do not share all of the literally hundreds of studies, sketches, drawings, bad paintings, and other labor and work that is essential to creating the work we make but is not finally shown in a frame on a gallery or museum wall. Therefore, the public and non-creative people don’t get a chance to see this incredible volume of what really goes into an individual artwork. In the end, a professional artist’s job is simply the job of any professional; to make what we do look easy even when it really is not.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jeremiahpatterson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremiahpatterson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeremiah.patterson.10
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVasVXIHfvyo7587b26pDoA
• Other: http://www.workshopsinitaly.com https://www.hartford.edu/academics/schools-colleges/art/default.aspx

Image Credits
Photo credits for images of artwork: Richard Newton; Jim Gipe – Pivot Media