Patrick Riley

Patrick Riley is a Kentucky-based artist & photographer. His oil paintings embrace abundant layers of paint applied mostly through the use of a palette knife in an impasto-type style. He often uses pigments from natural elements of the Earth in his paint to pay his respect to nature. Patrick’s distinctive style combines both symmetry and chaos. His use of bold and vivid colors arranged throughout the painting in heavy patterns form a breathtaking composition.

Patrick grew up painting and drawing with a distinguishing talent for capturing objects from a unique perspective. “I want the observer to view it as if they are seeing the subject matter for the first time,” Riley explains. “I feel that you need to believe before you can see, and believing that this particular dreamlike world exists allows me to see it and paint it,” he adds.

Being an admirer of poetry and a poet himself, Patrick likes to incorporate the use of poems & prose into his artwork. “The painting has so much more to say,” he states. “I don’t feel like the story ends when the last drop of paint hits the canvas.” With this being the case, most of Riley’s work also consist of an analogous story that belongs to each piece, usually inscribed onto the back of the canvas...

Self taught...