Mark Patnode casts New London in a fresh light

Instead of ceding to the gray skies of a dour New England winter, artist Mark Patnode infuses his canvas with color that illuminates New London in those slivers of time when the city's features glow.

People may not notice the sky is azure as it nestles upon the horizon, and they might miss the violet streaks that gird the dominant umber that wends its way through the city's alleys, but Patnode mines these color spectrums to maximum effect in his artwork.

His oil paintings of New London are Patnode's latest pursuit - and these cityscapes, as well as his landscapes, are on view in the exhibit "A Live Retrospective of Mark Patnode" at the TseTse Gallery until Feb. 29.

"When you close your eyes and make things black and suddenly open them, you are astonished at how vibrant the colors are," Patnode said of his New London series.

"In our day-to-day journeys, we lose sight of the subtleties, complexities and intensities that really exist. I get excited seeing that last vestige of light hitting the side of the building during that last 45 seconds of light."

One such painting, "Sunset, Meridian Street," a small oil on linen, distills the well-worn stateliness of the former Mohican Hotel. The sky unfurls in a bolt of turquoise - the same startling blue that bursts through the windows. The ochre-hued building is daubed with liberal amounts of paint - an impasto technique that imparts vigor, preserving the hotel's dignity with a defiant vitality.

It was Patnode's painting of the Mohican that captivated Jamie Lee, the gallery manager of TseTse, who first spotted it on a social networking site.

She recalled someone commented that only Patnode could make New London look so good, which appealed to her - especially as she observed the way in which the city's troubles have triggered negative public opinion.

"He's showing the beautiful side of New London," she said.

A unique aspect of the exhibit will be the changing of artwork during the show. New cityscapes will go up as Patnode completes them, and he promises one large oil depicting his hometown of New London before the exhibit closes.

Patnode's new body of work, comprising about 35 pieces at any given time, may surprise some people who know him primarily as a landscape artist. But Patnode enjoys taking an array of approaches to his artwork.

"There's a freedom in Mark you don't see in a lot of artists," said his friend of more than 30 years, James Stidfole of New London. "Once artists get good at something, they keep doing it again and again and again. Mark I don't think has ever felt bound by that pigeonholing either by galleries or by himself."

Trained at SUNY Purchase as an abstract expressionist, Patnode has assembled a body of work that can be seen in progression: from an academic still life to detailed, photorealistic landscapes and onto a more minimalist approach in which the scene appears to be fading as the viewer observes it.

Now, Patnode said, he is back to strong expressionist tendencies. And even while he paints initially en plein air, he then goes back into the New London studio he shares with eight other painters to push the emotive quality.

"I want to feel free with paint, and I don't want to be constrained with convention," Patnode said. "Why not go back to my expressionist roots and sling it - throw it, splash it? It's the artist's mark - it's mark-making."

Patnode's public work includes several paintings in Sen. Joe Lieberman's Washington office, a painting of the Charter Oak Tree to commemorate Connecticut's 375th anniversary bestowed to the Governor's residence conservancy, and he has some works on view at the New London's mayor office. Patnode is also a graphic artist for Sonalyst in Waterford.

Through all of his changes in style and approach, not to mention his prolific output (sleep is good when he can get it, joked Patnode), the motivation for his work remains refreshingly simple:

"When people see things for what they really are, that's what I strive for," he said.