Painter Patty Porter to show landscapes in Ulysses

Local painter Patty Porter will debut her new exhibition of landscape paintings at the Ulysses Philomathic Library on Nov. 16. 

A reception will occur from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Porter will show portraits from her travels to small coastal cities in France, as well as sojourns to the American southwest and the Irish countryside. The exhibition spans Porter’s experiences and artwork from the early 2000s to the present.

“As an artist I record my most important visual experiences, not in journals or diaries, but on canvas,” Porter said in an artist statement sent to the press. “The work in this show is an accumulation of what I hold dear, what excites me, what I want to explore more deeply, or just what needs to be remembered.”

For Porter, painting is a way of preserving memories, atmosphere, space, light and emotions.

“Drawing and painting are meditations on what is wonderful about life,” she said in the statement. “As an expressive realistic painter I reserve the right to alter reality, and sometimes to give myself artistic license to create balance within the facts.”

Porter’s work represents more than just a record. It also symbolizes a door to a new chapter of her life and a whole new component of her identity.

Porter grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and studied art education at Kutztown University. She taught art in the Ithaca City School District for decades. She recently moved to the village of Trumansburg to enjoy the “quiet pastoral beauty of open fields and wooded areas,” Porter said.

“[Teaching art] was the most fun job for me. I have no regrets,” Porter said in an interview with Tompkins Weekly. “I loved every day. It was like being able to play but have a curriculum to back you up, and the kids were wonderful. What they did was always exciting and fresh.”

Following her time as an art teacher, Porter said she faced a crossroads. Her children had grown up, she had just gotten a divorce in the early ’90s.

“I had a chance to not just be a mother, but I could be whatever I wanted to be,” she said.

Porter then met Gillian Pederson-Krag, a decorated artist who helped Porter further shape her art.

“But then a friend said, ‘There’s this great course in La Rochelle, France, teaching plein air painting with really well known plein air painters,’” Porter said. “And we painted from 8 a.m. until dark every single day.”

Plein air is the practice of painting outdoors, directly from nature, where the artist captures the essence of a scene by working “in the open air” rather than in a studio, according to an article on The Artists Network.

Plein air in France was Porter’s introduction to a more serious form of artistic expression.

“The light was incredible, the teaching was incredible, and you just immersed yourself in this journey,” she said.  “Eventually, I stopped doing plein air painting because I wanted to work more on the paintings in the studio. And as you get older, it’s harder to carry all that equipment and be outside for that amount of time.”

Porter said the experience was formative.

“Anytime any person has a chance to totally immerse themselves in educating themselves in any way, they should take that,” Porter said. “We were there for two weeks, and you did it seven days a week. We were younger, and we had stamina to do that kind of stuff.”

From there, she found a community in Ithaca. That group of painters would often travel to Maine for the summer to talk about art.

“We painted together and then analyzed or critiqued our work at the end of the day, and then started all over again the next day,” Porter said. “And that kind of immersion is just so valuable.”

Now, Porter has been with the State of the Art Gallery, a fine arts cooperative in Ithaca, for more than 20 years. 

“I’ve been … enjoying the camaraderie of fellow artists and the discipline of showing my work regularly,” she said.

Ulysses Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter): @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The Ulysses Philomathic Library is hosting its Lunch and Learn event Nov. 14 at 12:30 p.m. 

Presenter Barbara Harrison is certified in media literacy and holds a masters degree in community change and civic leadership. She will share resources and lead a discussion about news media literacy that will help you make sense of the news in this age of information overload.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own computer.