OCTO! — Drawings by neil patterson

July 29, 2021 – September 23, 2021

Hillsborough-based artist Neil Patterson was born in Toronto in 1933, the youngest of four boys to English parents who had emigrated in the 1920s. His father was a banker; his mother had been a hat designer in London who sold her hats to the Queen.

At 25 Neil took a job in the Canadian office of McGraw Hill selling textbooks across Canada. He took a keen interest in the scientific subject matter and his early mastery led to extraordinary sales and rapid promotion to editor and, soon after, editor-in-chief. From Toronto he made his way to New York City where he began a notable and long career developing leading science textbooks for college students, including collaborations with 19 Nobel Laureates.

At 82 Neil traded publishing for art. Two chance encounters drawing with children in a single week led to a surprisingly rigorous and intense personal drawing practice-sometimes 5 to 6 hours a day. His constantly evolving exploration of color and form has produced a mature body of work that has been exhibited regionally and nationally.

“At 82 I found myself drawing (on placemats) on two different occasions at the dinner table with my grandson and the daughter of a family friend. That got me started. These drawings began as free hand lines with moments of color and took mere minutes to complete. 

I progressed to Bristol board pads and Prisma color markers. I began using rulers, bowls, soap dishes and glasses as edging mechanisms and, to delineate pattern, began embossing my paper with a ballpoint pen nib. The ink flows into the groove made by the nib of my black pen. Sometimes I leave the isolated object floating in space and sometimes I like to fill the paper edge to edge.

I did not —  do not —  map the drawings out. I make the first line randomly and from there the drawing evolves. What I do in one part of the picture with color or shape effects what happens in other parts. It is always an effort to birth a whole, integrated, balanced outcome, even if dissonance is part of the visual story.  I am captured by the task of realizing what I started. The  emergent forms drive me forward. It becomes fascinating and holds my interest, I need to complete it, whatever it is, whatever it becomes. It is the doing, the action, that fills my life. The need to do. All of this is compelled.  As soon as I finish a piece I start another.”

Enjoy a 3D walk-through of Cassilhaus and this exhibition here.

At our opening event on July 29th, Neil made some wonderful impromptu remarks which we regrettably did not make plans to record. Fortunately one of our guests, Grace Holtkamp, recorded it with her cell phone. With a little help from Roger Haile and Anna Kipervaser we were able to get a serviceable version which you can view below. Neil’s wife Ippy transcribed his remarks and you can see them here as well.

We are located in Duke Forest, fifteen minutes from both Durham and Chapel Hill. If you’d like to be the first to hear about events and exhibitions in the future, please sign up to be on our mailing list.