< Back to Directory

Patricia Buck

Painting, Visual / Media

My creative process is spontaneous and intuitive. I paint without thinking about the evolution of the work. My method is instinctive, unconscious, and physical; relying on a strongly associative mind, an internal compass, decades of experience with color and a kinesthetic sense which takes over when a brush saturated with paint meets the surface of the canvas.

My abstract work conveys experience which I cannot put words. Some paintings are subtle, some powerful, some dark, but all represent an energetic experience which I express through paint.

These acts of ‘making,’ link an inner reality with the physical materials in my hands, in a 'call and response' dynamic which becomes something tangible. When finished, an idea is made manifest. An object exists expressing something of my self.

About the Artist

Patricia Buck was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. She has a master's of fine art from the Howard University, College of Art, in Washington, DC, and a bachelor's degree in studio art from the University of Maryland. She received a 2025 Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, and her work is included in the 2025 Arts Biennial sponsored by the Howard County Arts Council, and the Survey of Women Artists in the DMV Exhibition curated by F. Lennox Campello. Her work is included in the state of Colorado the Art in Public Places, and is catalogued in the Hirshhorn museum. Colorado Council for the Arts awarded her a fellowship at Anderson Ranch, and she has received grants from the Arlington Arts Council, and five grants from the District of Columbia Commission for the Arts & Humanities.   The emphasis of her art continues to be using color and form to reveal phenomenal energy.

Patricia Buck website To Purchase Art Patricia Buck website Patricia Buck Art on Artwork Archive Patricia Buck website Saatchiart.com

Artist's Statement

Patricia Buck was born in 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her earliest memories are rooted in a deep sensory connection to nature—wandering wooded paths near her childhood home, observing the plants and animals that inhabited those forests, listening to birdsong and the wind through dried oak leaves, and absorbing the colors and scents of her surroundings—often while on horseback.   Introduced to art at an early age, she began formal training in childhood and was painting in oils on canvas by high school. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art, with a minor in Art History, from the University of Maryland. After graduation, she worked briefly in retail copywriting, but soon found the work unfulfilling. Seeking a more creative life, she moved to Key West for two years before relocating to Washington, D.C., to establish her studio.   From 1983 to 1996, Buck lived and worked in the District, exhibiting widely at venues including the Washington Women’s Art Center, Olshonsky Gallery, Touchstone Gallery, Gallery K, and through Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) events. In 1982, Joseph Hirshhorn purchased her work Demons Without Faces at auction to benefit the WPA; the piece is now catalogued in the Hirshhorn Museum collection. During this period, she received numerous honors, including two Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission for the Arts and Humanities.   Encouraged by Sam Gilliam, Buck pursued graduate studies at Howard University’s College of Fine Arts, earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1996. Following graduation, she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she presented three solo exhibitions at Pirate Contemporary Art and Edge Gallery, participated in numerous juried shows, and had two works acquired by Colorado Art in Public Places. The Colorado Council for the Arts also awarded her a scholarship in photography at Anderson Ranch.   In 2000, Buck returned to the East Coast with her long-time partner. In 2002, she presented Genetics/Memetics at the Art-O-Matic event in Washington, D.C., earning a front-page feature in The Washington Post.   Most recently, in 2025, Buck was awarded an Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.  Her painting 'Bulls-eye' was chosen by L  for inclusion in the 2025 Survey of Women Artists in Delaware-Maryland-Virginia.  Her painting 'Stasis' was selected for the 2025 Art Biennial for Howard County Arts Council by Liz Henzey, director of the Columbia Art Center, Columbia, MD  

Featured Work

Photos

This vibrant composition is composed of a layered background of earthy greens, yellows, and deep oranges—with carefully placed concentric circles in vivid hues of pink, yellow, red, and turquoise. The composition varies from luminous to atmospheric with circular forms staggered in the foreground and others receding to the back. Circles, the dominant theme, vary in size and opacity, floating, overlapping, and clustering across the canvas. The circles evoke associations with cellular structures, life forms, or celestial constellations—inviting a sense of the micro and macro simultaneously. Textured brushwork and layered transparencies amplify the feeling of movement and emergence, reinforcing the tension between order and improvisation. The result is a composition that is both contemplative and subdued.
A vibrant composition of concentric circles densely pack the surface of this work, which is included in the Survey of Women Artists in the DMV, an exhibition curated by F. Lenny Campello, in 2025. Rings of color in blue, red, purple, green, yellow, and orange are tightly packed and layered concentrically. The ground is a golden yellow-green, enhancing a jewel-like quality to the paint. Brushstrokes are visible and textured, adding to the immediacy of the piece despite the repetitive motif. The circles vary slightly in size, placement, and color, creating an optical reverberation across the canvas. The painting radiates a vibrant multiplicity and interconnectedness as each form retains its unique individuality. Priced unframed, a custom walnut float frame is available, and is currently on this work, exhibiting in the DMV exhibition at the Artists and Makers Studios and Galleries at 11810 Parklawn Dr., Rockville, MD.
This painting is included in the Howard County Art Biennial at the Howard County Arts Council, an exhibition juried by Liz Henzey, director of the Columbia Art Center. It illuminates unseen patterns which connect us to each other and the systems around us. Composed of layered geometries—circles, lines, and grids and layers of translucent color, infer natural and cultural boundaries wherein we confine our experience. Repeating shapes and connective lines suggest the relentless patterns of repetition experienced by generations and shared cultural history. Its visual iconography references an intersection of time and space. Price listed is unframed. A custom walnut float frame is available sized exactly for this piece. Framed, $1900.
This vivid, energetic abstract work emphasizes undulating, organic forms outlined in layers of electric: neon yellow, magenta, blue, orange, and purple, layered and bordered in contrasting hues. Evoking motion—the concentric ovals, loops, and biomorphic shapes pulse across the canvas. Small dots scattered over the painting, add texture and rhythm— and a dark background grounds the intensity of the saturated colors, creating a sense of depth and mystery.
In Power Form II, Patricia translates the energy of motion into a striking visual rhythm. Sweeping graphite lines and dense passages of India ink traverse the surface, creating a tension between delicacy and force. The drawing unfolds as an orchestration of movement—marks surge, collide, and dissolve—capturing the raw immediacy of gesture in a single sustained act of expression. Working on a scale more often reserved for painting, Buck has expanded the language of drawing into the realm of physical experience. The surface bears evidence of pressure, release, and revision, revealing both the artist’s control and her willingness to surrender to the spontaneous flow of line. Areas of deep black anchor the composition, while lighter, fluid gestures evoke breath and lightness. Created in 1982, Power Form II exemplifies Buck’s early engagement with abstraction as a living process—one that balances energy and restraint, material and spirit. It is a meditation on power as a natural, dynamic state rather than an imposed force, offering viewers a direct encounter with the vitality of mark-making itself. Power Form II exhibited in 2018 at the Alper Initiative for Washington Art in the Washington Women's Art Center Retrospective at American University, Katzen Art Gallery Museum, American University, Washington DC. It is included in the catalog by the same name. The work is currently mounted on rag mat board attached to a structured wood backing with no glazing.

Videos

  • This is the surface of the painting Lagoon.

    See more information about This is the surface of the painting Lagoon.
    This is the surface of one of my favorite paintings, Lagoon. It is painted on a heavy printmaker's paper and measures 50"H x 38" W. This piece was painted with my hands and the surface is richly textured, it feels almost like polished leather
    Medium: Acrylic
    Year: 1989
    Details: 50"H x 38"W

Written Works