Painter Patrick King debuts a show of new works at Kim Eagles-Smith Gallery. “Welcome Home,” curated by Heide Van Doren Betz, was developed around a series of works that King created to honor the life of his daughter Jacqueline, who died of cancer at age 3. For a period after her death, King considered quitting his artistic practice, but his desire to celebrate the preciousness of the life around him eventually helped bring him back into the studio. He describes himself as an “emotional painter” who processes his feelings through his work.
King, who earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, recently began exploring hiking trails and parks around the Bay Area. Those natural motifs are evident in the work on view and reflect, he said, a peaceful presence he found in the region.
“This is largely self-reflection,” King said in an artist statement. “These paintings are actually self-portraits. I find the juxtaposition of beauty and death captivating. I see beautiful flowers growing in an environment not suitable for life, a daisy wanting to be noticed, or a delicate flower struggling to survive in the concrete jungle.”
