Patricia Buck
Columbia, MD
Patricia Buck is an American abstract painter based in Maryland, known for large-scale color field paintings and mixed-media works exploring phenomenal energy.
Message
Patricia Buck is an American abstract painter based in Maryland, known for large-scale color field paintings and mixed-media works exploring phenomenal energy. She holds an MFA degree from Howard University, College of Art, and a BFA in Studio from University of MD.
She has received grants from the Rauschenberg Foundation, the Arlington Arts Council, three Technical Assistance Grants from the D.C. Commission for the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), and two Individual Artist Grants from DCCAH. Joseph Hirshhorn made a direct purchase of her work in 1981, which was bequeathed the Hirshhorn Museum, and is documented in their collection. The State of Colorado purchased two of her works in their Art in Public Places program, and Patricia received a fellowship from the Colorado Council on the Arts in photography to study at Anderson Ranch.
In 2025, the Maryland State Arts Council awarded her a grant and she was offered a 2027 solo exhibition at the Artists and Makers Gallery in North Bethesda, MD. Her work was curated into a 2025 Survey of Women Artists in the DMV Exhibit, the Howard County Art Council's Biennial, and work was juried into the East City 2026 Regional Exhibition in Washington, DC and selected by Helen Frederick and Nicole Donnelly into Paper as Politic at George Mason University, Gillespie Gallery.
The artist's practice is informed by decades of studio work, art historical research, and metaphysical inquiry. Rather than relying on literal visual narrative, and quotidian symbols, she explores color, pattern, visual rhythm and spatial tension to evoke subliminal, physiological responses in the viewer.
Patricia's work is developed during focused studio sessions when material, color and physical engagement are linked in an internal process that manifests through the work. Meaning emerges during the deliberate experience of choosing color and generating marks, as those relationships meld and migrate to a place beyond words and language.
Statement
My work is grounded in a longstanding interest in perception, energy, and the interconnected systems that shape human experience. Influenced by studies in metaphysical thought and contemplative practices, I approach painting as more than image-making; it is a process through which rhythm, vibration, color, and form can generate direct sensory and emotional responses.
Rather than illustrating specific beliefs or narratives, the work investigates how visual relationships affect the body and consciousness. Through layering, repetition, and chromatic interaction, the paintings develop as dynamic fields intended to slow perception and invite sustained attention.
I am interested in the possibility that visual experience can alter one’s internal state —creating moments of heightened awareness, emotional resonance, or quiet transformation. Viewers have occasionally described deeply personal responses to the work, reinforcing my belief that abstraction can communicate in ways that precede language and operate through felt experience.