— Friedrich Nietzsche As you enter Cornerstone Café you can immediately feel the bliss that artist Bobbie Patton says she gets from painting. Patton is the Kings County Art League’s featured artist for September and October with her art exhibit titled, “Follow Your Bliss!” Each painting is beautiful and unique. Two of her paintings, “Hydrangeas” and “Rose Parade” are early works.
You can see how her work has blossomed as she has gone from flowers to landscapes. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Patton didn’t dabble in art at all. However, she always loved the arts and had an appreciation for music, art, and writing.
It is hard to believe by viewing her paintings that Patton started painting just 13 years ago. She retired in 2011, and she and her husband were living in the retirement community of Sun City Roseville in Northern California. One day she was walking by the complex’s art room when three women sitting inside beckoned her to come in.
Patton, at the urging of the women, signed up to take art classes offered in the community there, and that’s when her artistic journey began. Patton then took several different art classes to try find her art medium of choice. She finally found her niche in oils.
She finds watercolor an unforgiving medium and isn’t fond of acrylic as it dries too quickly. One complaint that artists voice about oil painting is that it takes too long to dry. However, Patton found that to be a positive, and the very thing she loves about.