The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery is pleased to again show new works by Pacific Northwest painter Pat Tolle. Ms. Tolle has been a consistent exhibitor at the gallery since her inaugural show in 1993. Over the years we have watched her evolve from funky to sophisticated, from swimming pools and underwater scenes to bold and lush landscapes.
Recently, Tolle has had the honor of completing a huge commission for the University of Washington and the city of Bothell at the UW Bothell campus. This spectacular landscape utilizes her aerial perspectives of the Sammamish Slough and the surrounding territory in a monumental scale.
This years exhibit represents the direction her art has taken: aerial views of Washington’s landscape. Some revisited from past shows, some new areas of interest. From the Palouse of Eastern Washington to the brilliant color fields of the Skagit Valley, Tolle lavishly paints these aerial views and acute perspectives.
She traveled by helicopter over the state for inspiration, from the islands of the Puget Sound to the tulip fields of Skagit Valley to the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse. They are thickly painted oil of overlapping vivid colors, with her goal of a marriage recognizable actuality to abstract wonder.
The joy she experienced while flying is what she wishes 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.
