Artist Statement

Currently living on the shore of Topsail, a barrier island in North Carolina, Greg Patch is an artist and a traditional herbalist whose paintings portray the earth, the unconscious and the one-ness of all life. His commitment to restoring the planet to its natural balance is reflected in his work with individuals as a natural healer, in the environmental themes of his artwork, and in the non toxic medium which is integral to the meaning of the finished work.
The colorfast “beeswax colors” Greg uses are made in Germany. The carefully selected food container safe pigments are based on Goethe’s color wheel. They are free of turpentine, processed oils or toxic chemicals like cadmium, chromium, lead, preservatives and fungicides found in acrylic, encaustic, watercolor and guache paints. This medium of beeswax and pigment, which has been used since prehistoric times, also intensifies the clarity, richness and integrity of color, line and form. Greg’s painting is a form of meditation for him and a vehicle for contemplation for us. It is a literal expression of “being in” nature.
“There is a wave in the landscape,” he explains, "where the movement is behind our eyes and before our eyes in lines, shapes, forms and color. It is in our memories and in the memories of all there is, and contains the symbols of a universal language that lay deep within our collective unconscious. I have seen these symbols in my paintings during and often after creating them.”
My paintings move with the forces of nature - the streams, mountains, astrology, technology, thoughts, actions, energy, self, lunch – and culminate in the realization that everything is the wave.
I believe that nature calls to each of us to step out of ourselves and into it, to identify and revel within it, amid the waves. Doing this can transform our awareness into an energy greater than our own understanding.
Greg received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He studied at the Munson-Williams Proctor Institute School of Art in Utica, NY, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the College of Artesia in Artesia, New Mexico, and did graduate work at the State University of New York in Albany. He apprenticed with steel sculptor Willard Boepple (Utica Boatworks) and Bob Schuler (Tethys Project, High Falls, NY}. Greg has also been a student, teacher and practitioner of herbal medicine for 25 years.