Patricia Weise is a painter who has shown her work in many regional and national solo and juried exhibitions. Her intimate still lifes, dealing with daily routine and memory, are done in gouache and watercolor on paper and on cradled clayboard. She received her MFA at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, and her BFA at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She is an adjunct instructor in art at Central CT State University and Northwestern CT Community College. 

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These gouache paintings are part of a series I’m calling Kitchen Clutter. I have been working on this series for about three years and I still find compelling reasons in each painting to continue the exploration. I’m not sure what attracts me to this subject — perhaps a celebration of the routine, perhaps the recognition that these domestic rituals represent a daily struggle to stave off utter chaos.

 

The repetitive, meditative quality of some household tasks is not a far stretch from the actual activity of painting the scene. There is enjoyment in bringing order, even harmony, to a random arrangement of objects, shapes and colors. The drama and tension between flat shapes, lines of perspective, light and shadow and color are all played out on the picture plane.

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On another level, the objects depicted — teakettles, pots and pans, cups and glasses — can be seen as stand-ins for the deep human connections made in conversation in the kitchen.