Early Years

My earliest introduction to art was around the age of six when after drawing a picture of a horse I received praise and encouragement. If people were happy at something that I had drawn then that was exciting for me. From that moment on I was hooked on art and continued to draw through my early years.
My father met my mother in France during World War II. He was a young American GI and she a beautiful 19 year old French woman and after a mostly long distance courtship they married in the US. I was born in Tacoma Washington as the middle child of seven children. My father was an Air Force officer and we moved with his assignments around the country.
By the time I was seven my family moved to France where my father was stationed as an American liaison officer. My mother immediately set out to immerse us in French culture, so we lived in the city of Nancy, went to French schools, I was in the French cub scouts, and had only French friends. In school I had a love of European history and architecture – after all it was all around me, and I drew pictures of buildings and historic events. Our family began speaking and thinking in French and I acquired a love for the Old World that never left me.

Education

In 1963 my family moved back to the US and settled in Charleston SC, a beautiful old city rich with its own history and architecture. After graduating high school I attended the College of Charleston and majored in Architectural History, and also took art classes. I soon realized that my interest was more toward fine art and I graduated with my degree in art in 1980.
After graduating I married, had two beautiful daughters, and supported my family working for the US Post Office as a rural mail carrier. I continued to draw and paint throughout this time and participated in a College of Charleston Alumni show and a Gibes Art gallery show in Charleston. While on a visit to Philadelphia I was introduced to ceramics by my wife’s grandmother. She had been working in ceramics for some years and the colors I saw in her work were so intense and rich that I was captivated. She then made one of the most generous gifts I have ever received; supplying me with a small kiln, clay, glazes and tools – everything that I needed to start making clay art! I began experimenting (almost burning my apartment down) and learning what I could about clay.
In 1986 I transferred my Post Office job and family to Portland Oregon. My young entrepreneur daughter Josie began a project making Christmas angel ornaments which got the kiln fired up again and eventually led us to sell our ware at Portland Saturday Market, which I continued for seventeen years. My evolution in crafts went from Christmas ornaments to clay jewelry to hand made ceramic tile and switch plate covers, but it was only after my separation and divorce that I seriously began a long course back toward painting. The textural and sculptural elements of clay added a new dimension to my work and became part of my inspiration.

Terra Cotta Painting

In 1998 my Father offered me the tools that he had been using for making marquetry. Marquetry is an old art form which uses inlaid wood to make art in picture form and in furniture. This led me to thinking of making woodcuts that could be used to make impressions in clay.
My technique has evolved and starts with drawings from which I make a woodcut that when pressed into clay makes a flat relief representation of the original drawing. I then paint the clay piece with ceramic stains and colors that are fired in my kiln at 1940 degrees Fahrenheit. All the work is done on clay before the firing from the many impressions I make with woodcuts, tools and found objects, to the painting. I am in my unique fashion discovering for myself new ways of working with clay and paint and am challenged by the many intricate and delicate ways I can explore this medium. The subjects that I find interesting are often the pastoral scenes and architecture from the Old World. I like to distress the surface of clay and leave the edges of my paintings deckled and torn to give the impression of time and wear. My larger desire is to give relief to our busy contemporary lives by representing, in some way, the slow timeless beauty of old, so that we make our own subtle connections as to how the past influences our present.
I feel that I am returning to my roots as a two dimensional fine artist with the interests that I developed as a young boy in France. Today I am encouraged by my two beautiful daughters Hillary and Josie, and my artist parents Philip and Genevieve, in continuing to work and explore my talent in art.

I would like to thank everyone who has appreciated and bought my art.
It is in part because of you that I find joy in what I do.

Patrick Noe
April 2006