Sonoma Art Scene: Patricia Akay

By Jackie Lee | Sun Fine Arts

Patricia Akay, or Pati to her friends, personifies the composed, mannered lady often seen in social circles. It’s difficult to conceive of her dressed in messy studio clothes like the rest of us, and in fact she manages to stay neat and clean even then. She’s a very together person.

Pati says she has always been interested in art; she remembers scribbling in her parents’ books as a toddler. After receiving her BA at California College for the Arts, armed with a one-year scholarship to the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, she taught art at Oakland Junior High School. Later, she taught art in her home to students in grades 8 through 12, and participated in a watercolor workshop in Carmel for eight years. Even though she was represented by several galleries in Northern California at the time (and still is), she ran her own gallery simultaneously in Burlingame for seven years, aptly called The Gallery.

A trip to Europe on an artistic odyssey for a five-year period, going from country to country painting en plein air, provided a deeper appreciation of Impressionist artists like Monet, one of her favorites. She is inspired to this day by the looser painterly style.

Pati has a long list of collectors around the globe snapping up her new paintings as they become available and has sold 1,000 paintings in her long career (maybe more – she’s lost count.) In comparison, Van Gogh produced 1,000 paintings in his lifetime and sold only one, to his brother Theo. 

“When I moved here with my husband Kenan in 1999, I envisioned a retirement from all my past art involvements so I could just paint,” Pati said. “I hadn’t painted vineyards up to that time and I was fascinated with the shapes and colors of my environment. My first large watercolor of a vineyard on Warm Springs Road was purchased by The Lodge in Sonoma, which featured prominent local artists at the time. They made copies of it for their suites.”

Pati has participated in the Sonoma art scene every year, exhibiting her paintings in many community events and more than 30 solo shows over the years, and has volunteered for many causes promoting the arts. She is a long-term member artist of Arts Guild of Sonoma and shows her paintings there year-round.

She is well known for her landscapes, as well as her “Vineyard Workers” series of farm laborers who toil diligently in this area. Remarkably candid portrayals, the focus is not on the vineyards but on the workers in action. She has other series as well. For one, she paints musicians who perform at The Speakeasy on Tuesday evenings in Sonoma. She considers them friends and gives them a copy of the finished artwork.

“I paint a lot of commissions too,” says Pati. “Six are in process now. They are always a joy to do, because they will become a special memory of someone’s home, or children, or dog, or where they were married, even their grandmother’s chair.”

When asked for her thoughts on the art scene today, Pati is passionate for arts to be taught in all schools. “Art connects us all to life itself and makes us think differently,” she says.

What has been the most worthwhile marketing tool? “Definitely participating in Art Trails, which I have every year since they began. It’s hard work to get ready for it, but I always sell a lot of paintings. Many of the visitors are collectors who return every year specifically to buy more art.”

Any personal thoughts? “When I paint, I want the viewer to see what I saw, or felt, whether an abstract or special memory. Despite what we hear, if we look for it there is so much beauty in the world which can be relaxing, stress-free, and meaningful. I want to portray the positive. I think we all need that.”

Indeed we do.