Artist Patty Voje cites Edward Hopper’s famous quote “what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house” as a parallel to how she feels about painting farm animals. Nothing makes the artist happier than stumbling upon a well-lit cow in a field. Voje grew up on a small hobby farm where she had the good fortune to include pigs, sheep, and the occasional chicken as members of the family. She has always been fascinated by animals, feeling that she understands them better than humans or maybe just finds them easier to get along with. Now a city dweller, Voje spends weekends driving through the countryside to search for the little farms of her youth—scenes that are getting harder and harder to catch a glimpse of, which may be why they figure prominently in her art. Outside of farm animals, Voje is also intrigued with small town life and enjoys painting scenes of shops, streets and neighborhoods. Voje paints in the alla prima style - a painterly approach: large brushes loaded with paint that is sloppily yet thoughtfully laid down. Plein air painting figures prominently in her art and she paints on location, from life as often as possible. She studied Fine Art at the University of Minnesota and continues to study at the Atelier of Minneapolis. She earned her BFA degree from Metropolitan State University and she’s also studied with several prominent artists including Qiang Huang, Mark, Boedges, Bryan Mark Taylor, Lynn Maderich, Mary Pettis and Brian Lewis. Patty Voje lives and paints in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
