“From as soon as I could hold a pencil, much like other artists I know, I began drawing, and then later, …painting, adding collage, making things! Everything is worth looking at, but I’ve always loved the particular beauty of the human face,” says Patti Schappler with a grin, “Life is just richer when you’re looking for what makes it rich!”

Schappler is a native of New Hampshire, and she earned her BFA in Drawing from the University of New Hampshire and her MFA in Drawing and Painting from Brooklyn College. She lived in Nashua, Brooklyn, Hudson, and Ireland before returning to Hudson and then landing in Bedford in 2006. She has created and taught figure drawing, painting, mixed media, and pastels at the Nashua Center for the Arts, Montserrat College of Art, Rivier College, New Hampshire Institute of Art, NEC Institute of Art and Design, and Kimball Jenkins across three decades of sharing ideas, methods, experiences, and the simple love of creating within her community. 

I’m curious and love much! Over many years, beginning as a kid, I’ve drawn, worked with collage, and painted in acrylic, oils, and pastel, creating a range of narrative images from land to city to the figure. Many things excite me when I look around the natural world. When I travel, I take photos, jot down color studies on site, write descriptions, and imagine a piece evolving… If I see an interesting face, I scramble to get it down on scraps of paper, locking the shapes in my mind! Of course, I’ve always drawn my family members. I had such an abundance of aunts and uncles (over 40), my parents and siblings (I’m one of 12), and my husband Mark and his family, whom I’ve known since I was 16, is one of 7… I’ve also taught at various local colleges for over three decades, places filled with remarkable community- a starting place of love; what’s more inspiring? 

Our four kids are young adults now, but all their childhood has been recorded through drawings and paintings that reflect not only their personal history but the themes of family, childhood, adolescence, and motherhood which run throughout my work. Home is prevalent in my imagery and that may include biblical narratives, mythical, and personal stories, the gardens we’ve grown and the places we’ve lived.

I make things from a mix of life, memory, imagination, and photos that I’ve taken by the thousands- these sources are important for jogging my memory, reminding me of the gestures, patterns, light, and mood that were starting points for me thinking this would feel right as a drawing, or that would make a painting. I generally begin with a loose sketch. These drawings are nothing more than rhythmical lines hinting at an underlying composition a series of thoughts, really, that sets a stage or begins the puzzle. I prepare my surface and begin every piece with a loose, open idea that I am willing to shift and adapt as needed. That said, I draw with specificity too, meaning until the piece directs me otherwise, the drawing moves from a simple series of rhythms to a complex map that I transfer to the painting surface- even though it has real information, I’m not locked into it- it’s a starting place. It gives me an open plan, feels purposeful, and still allows for the freedom of change.

The size ranges, but most commonly, are quite small (under 8”), which I make to challenge my hand, or quite large (up to 4, 5, or 6 feet), so a grouping of 4 might make a 20-foot wall. My arm gravitates towards these large movements, and I feel free inside the bigger field. More importantly, perhaps, a large scale encompasses the viewer, so when they come closer, it seems to wrap around them much like a great hug, placing them inside the space of the painting. It’s super fun watching the FedEx driver deliver a package and stop to look at the large pieces that face out onto our patio.

I often work in a series because one idea will lead to another, and it’s magical to see ideas resolved or extended in a grouping. I have begun three series in the past couple of years that have occupied most of my attention. These include a landscape grouping from a recent visit to Ireland, which reminds me greatly of rural areas of New Hampshire and, in that same thought, of home. I’ve been motivated by the serenity inside churches I’ve visited as well, particularly focused on the empathy and strength of the Madonna works, and have created several modern Madonna images as a result. I’ve also been working with a Seasons series that has had me thinking about all the visual moments of land meeting humans, meeting animals, and the meaning of these spaces spiritually.

I’ve worked in home studios since the kids were born, sometimes only at night when they were small and as a way of being able to jump between mothering and making as they grew. My current studio abuts our office area. It’s a great space with storage for artworks, shelving units for papers, and many books on all facets of art from around the world that I’ve used for both personal and teaching inspiration over the years. Favorites like Rembrandt and Rego, Constable and Vermeer, Hokusai, Balthus, and Uglow, Cassatt, Lautrec, and Degas have worn, written-on pages …and there are contemporary loves as well with Assael, Gale, Desiderio, Saville and Walker among them, and so many more shelved behind my desk and piled on the floor. Artists tend to love all things sensual …music and dance, film and poetry, literature etc... but also tactile objects, papers, and cloths with textures and patterns. It’s all exciting to the hand and eye…flipping through a book or magazine is often part of the ritual of entering the studio. My space has high windows, which means more wall room for working and hanging pieces, a subfloor I don’t mind getting paint dripped on, a sink for cleaning brushes, several easels to have multiple works going simultaneously and/or for instruction purposes, a table for laying out paints, and rolling racks for needed materials.

I begin each painting or drawing with a clean space that becomes less visibly organized as I scratch out drawings and stretch the idea, often filling my space with resources and inspiration points. This accumulation is actually energizing until about 3/4 of the way through when I need to see in silence, meaning I clean everything, restoring order for me to re- see what I’ve been doing and make my way to the finish.

It’s not always easy balancing family, work, and creating, with marketing. In fact, I, like many, find it difficult and sometimes counterintuitive to the privacy of one’s own practice, but I think as an instructor, I attempt to take some time away from the studio, and both look at what’s going on from past students and artists I don’t know, along with sharing my process on social media. I’ve also just begun a newsletter – a catchall for what is going on in my creative process that anyone can join by subscribing to my website:https://www.patriciaschappler.com/My handles for Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are @patriciaschappler … these focus on time-lapse videos and stills of my process, Facebook is @pattischappler. Some serve as a storage place for historically meaningful works (Pinterest in particular), and all act as a line of connection from a private studio out into the world. In terms of selling, I exhibit multiple times a year with many of the local institutes, including the New Hampshire, Rockport, Cambridge, and Newburyport Art Associations, entering the Nationals juried at Fitchburg, Danforth, and Wausau Contemporary Museums. I have work locally at Art 3 and Framer’s Market in Manchester, as well as available through 33 Contemporary Gallery on Artsy, and am open to commissions. I keep thinking I need to have an annual open studio day for neighbors and the community to help give these works homes!

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Art is a place of question and evocation. My work is rooted in tradition as a means towards understanding life through careful observation, but painting also moves me through a series of connective tissues, memories, associations, and dreams. It’s an intuitive layering and rearranging of space and light, gesture, and direction. The subject is planned, but what happens in the process is open and surprising, an area of meaning. I looked to see balance, beauty, and possibility broadly and have some surprise, fun, and fulfillment along the way!

There’s a wonderful feeling of community built when creating beauty for others to enjoy! Many of us enthusiastically share knowledge with students, fellow artists, and any bystander willing to chat with us! Aligning with local framers and gallery owners and accessing exhibits up and down the coast, enrich our lives. We run into past students who are now exhibiting or illustrating books, tattooing, creating, and teaching. We build lifelong friendships with colleagues and meet new artists along the way, and we celebrate each other’s small and large accomplishments with the conviction that art makes a difference in this world! We can stand at an easel in studios and in nature, and our arms and hands are all over these things we are making, connecting us to others, building ideas we find significant into being…and sharing this love of handmade out into the world. It’s a metaphor for living, and it’s a bit miraculous!

To learn more about Patricia and see her artwork, visit patriciaschappler.com/