Archived Exhibition
Patricia Tobacco Forrester | Realism Crossing into Fantasy
February 11 – March 13, 2010
Reception: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Biography

Patricia Tobacco Forrester works outdoors creating large abstract landscapes in watercolor. By painting
directly on paper, with no preliminary drawings, she brings a vitality and immediacy to her work.

Over thirty years of painting, Forrester has developed a simple set of guides that she follows: The
plant or landscape has to have a dynamic feel, a sense that the life process is moving through them. The
light has to be appropriate, generally sunny, and the location accessible as it often takes many days to
complete a large painting.

Forrester points out that her paintings are often composites from varying sites. As she explains, "I
paint a large muscular tree that is splendidly lit and transfer it to a different landscape. Often I will add an
element of surprise to the foreground. The subject of my work is always growth: how trees and plants bulge,
stretch, and open."

Please click on an image for a larger version