Artist
Patricia Rhoden Bartels
”Oftentimes, working with the kids stimulated me to think about things and go off in a different direction.” photo by Bob Gustin
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~by Bob Gustin
atricia Rhoden Bartels has painted with aboriginals in Australia, explained American culture to teenagers in Russia, and taught art in a Yupik village in Alaska. Her art-related travels also took her to India, China, Japan, Europe, Mexico, Turkey, Peru, and many other nations. But perhaps her favorite scenes to paint are found on the driveway to her house atop a hill in southern Brown County, or even those she sees gazing out of her living room windows. Her 30 years here “seems like an instant,” she said, and there’s nowhere she’d rather live. Some of those 30 years were spent teaching art at Brown County Junior High. And it’s in Brown County that she
38 Our Brown County Jan./Feb. 2022
connected with artist Fred Rigley and became a painting companion to him, which prompted renewed interest in pursuing her own work. Their plein air excursions continued until his death. Known for her impasto style of painting, characterized by thick strokes of paint (like Vincent Van Gogh used), she does florals which include silver and gold leaf paint, and landscapes in the Impressionist style reminiscent of the founders of the Brown County Art Colony.
