Dael Patton

The urge to create and the pleasure I receive from the activity has been with me for as long as I can remember. I believe that the created process is connected to a higher being or force that is working through me. I feel that I am only a facilitator through which this energy flows.

I have always loved to draw and still do. However, I find it most challenging to allow the materials I am working with to be the “subject”, rather than to represent a recognizable object. I have been involved with art all of my life. My father, Clark Watson, was an animator with Walt Disney Studios, as well as a watercolor landscape painter. My Grandfather, Fred Watson, was a commercial illustrator in Canada. I grew up teething on a paintbrush, later majoring in art and art education. I have taught various methods of painting and drawing for over thirty years, from middle school to high school, and later to La Verne University.

Most of my work reflects a departure from the representational, figurative path. Moreover, although it is considered abstract expressionist, I am greatly influenced and awed by the wonder of nature. I believe this is reflected in much of my work, even though it may not be intentional at the time of creation.

I do not pre-plan my work, but work intuitively, responding to the materials I am using and the moment.