Artist Pat Meeker long-time gallery enthusiast and featured artist at Redlands Art Association

The current featured artist at The Redlands Art Association joined the association on a whim, a decision that lead her on a path to return to a passion for painting. Artist Pat Meeker brings her beautiful imaginative water colors and collages to the gallery until May 9^th.

One day Meeker was in the Beauty Salon store next door to the art gallery in downtown Redlands. “I saw all of the art and decided I would join,” she said. That’s over 30 years ago. She immediately signed up for an art class and went on a path from acrylic to eventually water color painting.

From being born in Minnesota and living in Arizona, Meeker ended up in Redlands through a teacher position her husband got in 1966. “We just liked it so much we stayed,” Meeker said about Redlands.

“I am not a club-joiner but I joined [Redlands Art Association],” she said. She was a gallery manager and volunteered many hours at the Redlands Gallery back then.

She has also been a member at Riverside Art Museum, Loma Linda Art Association and Museum of the Desert in Palm Springs. Since 1995 Meeker’s artwork has received recognition in both juried and non-juried shows: Redlands Conservancy’s Plein Air Show, Redlands Art Association’s Multi Media Mini Show, Loma Linda Fine Arts Festival, Fine Arts Institute Heritage Show and Riverside Art Museum’s Art Show.

Meeker has a college degree in home economics with a minor in art from Arizona State College (now Northern Arizona University). After raising two kids, Meeker joined her daughter at Cal State San Bernardino and took acrylic art classes there in the 1990s.

Many well-known artists have been her art teachers: Mary Grinyer, Rosemary Hite, Doris Cook, Hal Lambert, Tom Fong, Joan McKasson and Gerald Brommer. The latter Meeker said, “..was probably my favorite one. He stood out to me,” she said. “He was nice, a good teacher and he was inspiring and influenced some of my paintings.”

Her working style has always been rooted in her own ideas that she uses on top of a layer of realism. “You can either be perfect or you can let it be,” Meeker said, describing the flow of, “It’s the way the paints go.“

“You might put water and colors down and then you go, Oh my goodness, I can make something out of that, a landscape or a bouquet of flowers,” she said. Sometimes she works from a photograph but more often she works purely from imagination. She uses tissue paper to create structure, she uses salt to sprinkle on the painting or she uses impressions from blocks.

Her favorite subject is nature. She went through a phase of painting the ocean, now it’s cacti. She especially likes flowers. “If the flower is pink, you don’t have to paint it pink,” she said. That personal freedom of expression can be seen in Meeker’s artwork, sometimes it becomes almost impressionistic, sometimes abstract.

Today Meeker paints in her home studio. She meets up with a fellow artist, Patty Hayden, every week to paint. “It’s a good way to keep myself painting,” she said. “We give each other ideas and critique each other’s work and have a nice morning.”

Having been part of The Redlands Art Association for so long has given her lifelong friends, creativity and “It’s a place to bond with other artists and learn from them,” she said. She is flattered to have been asked to be the featured artist again, last time she was featured was in 2011, and she appreciates the chance to show off her work in Redlands.

You can meet artist Pat Meeker at the Open House event on Saturday April 26 from 1 to 4 p.m.

About the Redlands Art Association

Address: 215 E State St, Redlands CA 92373.

RAA website: redlands-art.org

RAA social media:  facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram.

Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays closed.

Featured artist show by Pat Meeker runs from April 12 to May 9.