Atop Florence's cobblestone streets, a man's paintbrush mimics the lines of the distant Ponte Vecchio, creating a soft yet detailed version of the Arno beneath it, the colored houses, the silhouette of mountains. This is the process of Hudson-born artist Michael Patterson. Since childhood, he has been driven to create art, heavily influenced by his grandfather Howard Ashman Patterson, whose paintings lined the walls of his home. His acrylic, oil, and watercolor works are figurative and abstract displays of nature's lyricism, capturing light and movement. In translating the act of people watching into painting, Dappled Street is part of a series where Patterson studied clusters of people walking in the East Village. He visually depicts changing colors and light patterns. "There's something poetic about the way light travels through space, and falls on the ground and people," says Patterson.
Film by Stephen Blauweiss/ArtistFilmDocs
