1960s Abstract Figurative Gouache Painting by Patricia K. Nicholson

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This piece was purchased at an auction of works and studio effects of the late artist Patricia K. Nicholson who … Read more This piece was purchased at an auction of works and studio effects of the late artist Patricia K. Nicholson who was a student of Mark Tobey who is famed as mid century artist who was a leader in the Northwest Artist Mysticism movement. It is not signed and may actually be a Tobey though it is more likely that Patricia created the work herself.

MONA (the Museum of Northwest Art) describes the late artist in the following way.

Born in Ontario, California, Patricial Nicholson became a painter with a wide range of subject matter from social realism in the 1930s and 40s, to everyday genre, to religious themes, which first brought her recognition as a fine artist.

She received a degree in medicine from the University of California at Berkeley, and during that time did medical illustrations, which developed her drawing skills. She married Ralph Nicholson in 1922, and in 1930 the couple moved to Seattle where she worked for Boeing in the Research Division. She also began the serious study of art, taking instruction from Peter Camfferman, Carl Morris and Mark Topey, who was a special influence and whose studio she often used for teaching her art classes. In 1955, Tobey said of her painting: "The paintings of Patricia Nicholson speak to a deeper side of ourselves. . . The religious spirit predominates in most of the paintings. A Spirit often lost in our age of belief in the material powers. . . With the sensitivity of technique and the power to organize her material, and still more the ability to conceal her artistry, she takes us into the realm of art."

For ten years, she was an art instructor for the Women's University Club.

Exhibition venues included the Seattle Art Museum's Northwest Annuals from 1939 to 1961, the Seattle World's Fair, and ongoing with the Women Painters of Washington. In 1944 and 1965, she had solo exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum, and in 1957, a retrospective exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum. She traveled including to Europe and Japan where in 1961, she studied calligraphy.

Source;
David Martin, An Enduring Legacy: Women Painters of Washington 1930-2005 See less