Vintage Patsy O’Toole Modern Still Life Oil Painting on Canvas

A real masterpiece by this important California artist. Illustrated in full color, full page, page 807 of Maurine St Gaudens’ 4-volume Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California 1860-1960.

Measures 30 1/2″ x 41″.

Gladys Vera Evans, known as Patsy, was born in Morristown NJ on January 18th, 1911. Raised in New Jersey, she received her BFA from the University of Syracuse in 1932 and, subsequently, her Master of Arts from Columbia University. In 1938 she married John O’Toole. After his service in WWII and the Korean War (he would be the most highly decorated doctor of WWII) they settled in Riverside, California where he practiced medicine for the rest of his career.

Working chiefly as a sculptor, she co-founded the Riverside Art Center. Studying under Millard Sheets she earned her MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 1962. In addition to her artistic practice, her long involvement with the Mission Inn included being instrumental in saving it from demolition. A painter, sculptor and ceramicist, she would exhibit primarily in Southern California for the rest of her life. Dying in 2000 at her home in Riverside she was buried next to her husband at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.

Bio abridged from Maurine St Gaudens’ 4-volume Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California 1860-1960.