The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery is pleased to exhibit the new paintings by Northwest artist, Pat Tolle. Tolle has been a regular gallery participant since her first show with us in 1993.

These new paintings represent the direction her art has taken: Aerial views of Washington's landscape and various vacation destinations. Just as artists portrayed motion from train travel, Tolle envisions seeing this earth from space.

She has traveled by helicopter over the state and vacation spots for inspiration, from the islands of ThePuget Sound and Hawaii to the tulip fields of the Skagit Valley and the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse.

These new paintings are thickly painted oils with overlapping vivid colors. Her goal is the marriage of recognizable actuality to abstract wonder.

The joy she experience while flying is what she would wish to convey to the viewer. It's almost a childlike reaction seeing live-action dinky-toy cars for the first time, cultivated farmlands and water-borne traffic.