I paint in gouache and watercolor, creating intimate still lifes and interiors, working to capture the cusp of the singular moment and memory within the shadowy spaces where the dramas of ordinary life are played out. The prosaic subject matter yields to an exploration of a number of themes, among them a celebration of routine and domesticity and, on the flip side, the more disquieting underlying ruminative or obsessive aspects of these daily chores.

It may be that the repetitive, meditative quality of some household tasks is not a far stretch from the actual activity of painting the scene. There is equal struggle and enjoyment to bringing order and balance to a random arrangement of objects and  shapes — they bounce off the edges of the surface of the paper as they struggle to stay piled within the confines of the dishdrainer. The drama and tension between flat shapes and patterns, lines of perspective, light and shadow, and color are all played out on the picture plane.

On another level, the objects depicted — teakettles, pots and pans, assorted coffee cups — speak to the alchemy elicited from cups of coffee into the deep human connections made in conversation in the kitchen.

Patricia Weise is a prize-winning painter from Connecticut who has shown her work in many regional and national solo and juried exhibitions. Her intimate interiors and still lifes, dealing with daily routine, lived experience, and the cusp of the singular moment and memory, are done in gouache and watercolor on paper or on cradled clayboard. She received her MFA from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, and her BFA from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She is currently an adjunct professor of art at Central CT State University.