Patrick St. Clair’s paintings of interior spaces play out as an abstract play of light and color. The use of light and shadow are how the paintings start with the building up of the space in the beginning. Slanting diagonals of light and shadow cross the spaces, giving way from light vibrancy and warm saturated tones to shades cool muted colors. Light and shade work as a device to allow for warm and cool tones to contrast in the painting. The geometry and order of the interior spaces contracts with the organic nature of the scenes outside. The interiors themselves are usually places of repose and reflection, a lone chair or multiples, the stand-in for the inhabitants. Furnishings provide a hint of the identity without having them there. Abstract paintings adorn many of the spaces: a painting within a painting. The hard edge abstraction paintings that often pop up in the paintings mirror the order of the space itself. Books, musical instruments, plants and other furnishings provide further signifiers of identity, part of a cultivated environment. A place to reflect and create. The scenes outside the windows change, from high mountains to coastal views. Some choices of scenes contrast with the interiors: high mountain retreats that have cactus plants inside, a reminder of the way spaces can be a sanctuary from the elements themselves. The spaces themselves are mostly imagined. Starting out abstractly as blocks of color, light and shadow. Surface and color relationships are worked out, then become real as the furnishings are added in. They are real but imagined all at once. They retain a sense of timelessness, of a moment in time captured. Patrick St. Clair received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. EDUCATION2005 M.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco CA1993 B.A. History, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX SELECT EXHIBITIONS2024 Hamptons Art Fair, Ric Michel Fine Art, Southhampton NY2024 Waterworks, Ric Michel Fine Art, Southhampton, NY2202 Art Market, Simon Breitbard Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA2021 Art Miami, Simon Breitbard Fine Arts, Miami, FL2017 Wild, Root Division, San Francisco, CA2016 Group Show, Wonderland Gallery, San Francisco, CA2015 Fall Group Show, Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA2014 For the Love of Country, Driftwood Art Salon Gallery, San Francisco, CA2014 Fall Group Show, Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA2013 Group Show, Driftwood Art Salon Gallery, San Francisco, CA2013 Twilight, Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco, CA2013 Fall Group Show, Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA2012 Fall Group Show, Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA2011 Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA2010 Art Aqua, Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts, Miami2008 If These Walls Could Speak, Reaves Gallery, San Francisco, CA2008 Group Show, Reaves Gallery, San Francisco, CA2007 Group Show, HangArt, San Francisco, CA 2006 LOL, HangArt, San Francisco, CA2005 CMYK/RGB, Transamerica Building, San Francisco, CA2005 Up and Coming, HangArt, San Francisco, CA2005 MFA Exhibition, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 2005 Locating, Cell Space, San Francisco, CA2004 Ad Hoc, Cell Space, San Francisco, CA2004 Playspace, California College of Art, San Francisco, CA2004 Pop Surrealism, Swell, San Francisco, CA2003 Fresh, Swell, San Francisco, CA AWARDS2010 Vermont Studio Center Residency2005 New American Paintings #61, Pacific Coast Edition