Patricia Prendergast

Since retiring from a career as a computer programmer for the State of California, Patricia has been able to indulge her love of nature and art. She chose pastels as the best medium to portray the serenity of the landscape of her native California.

 She draws inspiration primarily from various locales along the American River, the hills of Marin and North Lake Tahoe. However, her paintings are more an evocation of an emotional response to the transcendence found through nature than a rendering of a specific place.

 She is a self-educated artist and has studied with and been mentored by many internationally known pastel artists.

 She has been juried into local, national and international art competitions. She was awarded Signature status in the Sierra Pastel Society in 2017 and was juried into the Pastel Society of America in 2022.

I work exclusively in soft pastels, although occasionally I may start a painting with watercolor or acrylic ink to create a base of color on which to apply the layers of pastels. In the layering, I try to create a feeling of texture - similar to the impasto technique in oil painting. I enjoy creating what I call "a complexity of color." You can see this in the trees and rivers in my paintings. There is not just one color of blue for the water, but warm blues, cool blues, lavenders and pinks. The trees are many variations of green. I'm primarily a studio painter. Even my plein air paintings receive additional work back in my studio which, fortunately, opens onto my backyard so I still have a sense of being out in nature. Which is the true joy of painting.