I started painting at 10 years old, when my father gave me my first oil paint and brushes. That same day I painted a medieval street at night; narrow, with a small dimly lit lantern that showed a direction to follow. In the afternoon I tried to create my first painting with chiaroscuro using a palette with few colors and a fairly correct perspective. That was my first intuitive impulse to simply do the right thing. To do something well, something Kitsch. From that moment on I have only worked in the same way and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
Over the years I learned about the barbarism of modern art. I studied at two universities and attended many workshops with their “artists”.
One day, the curator of an exhibition, in which I was going to participate, told me to remove a couple of my paintings because they were “inappropriate.” He said that my pictures were “talking” and people do not want to buy pictures that talk while hanging on the wall. That day I left with all of my paintings, determined to never stop painting narratives. Clearly I was not an artist nor did I want to be an artist under such circumstances.
The medieval street that I painted always accompanied me as a reminder that I should not betray myself. This was confirmed when I applied for Odd Nerdrum’s School in 2017 and got accepted.
We were traveling from Sweden to Norway with his wife Turid, who also paints, and Master Nerdrum told me: “Patricia, they lie, quality should never go out of style.” With that phrase, he said it all.