Pat Welsh, a Rose of Many Petals
As a gardener in Southern California you know Pat Welsh from her many gardening books published throughout the years. I found my well-used and tattered copy of “Southern California Gardening” originally published in 1992 tucked in my bookcase. I have learned so much from the month-to-month guide since my husband and I moved to our own garden paradise some 30 years ago. Pat has written several more guidebooks for gardeners of all levels and Pat’s books can be found on Amazon.com
If you are an artist in San Diego you know Pat from her work on the seaside sculpture on the exterior wall of the Del Mar Library. And if you are a Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild member you know her work as a watercolorist and oil painter. But only a few may have read her first memoir, “All my Edens, A Gardener’s Memoir”, published by Chronicle Books in 1996. Here you will discover the most fascinating life of a young English girl, her gardens and her extended family of artists and businesspeople. The cast of memorable characters includes her Grandmother Lady Hattie Fisher-Smith and Grandfather Sir George Fisher-Smith. Pat’s extended families industrialized the worlds of wool spinning and wire milling, pulling 19th century England into the new age. These great industrialists wisely used their wealth and stature to educate and round their growing family into productive citizens of the 20th century.
One of Pat’s stories tells of her American Great-Grandfather Joe Fisher of Dedham Mass offering his daughters, Hattie and Hattie’s younger sister Elizabeth Campbell Clay, a choice of either a Grand Tour or a college education (quite enlightened for the 1800’s). Elizabeth took the full college education and graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts. Hattie opted for the Grand Tour and fell in love with the dashing Englishman Sir George and went of to live in the Gleddings in Halifax, Yorkshire England. Aunt Elizabeth then fell in love with the great American portrait painter, Robert Henri. As an accomplished artist herself Elizabeth went on to paint alongside Henri, traveling to Spain and parts unknown, but not before her sister Lady Hattie “looked him over” and commissioned Henri to paint her portrait. Pat’s fireplace is adorned with this beautiful Henri portrait of lovely Lady Hattie. Robert Henri is also the author of my favorite art bible, “Art Spirit”. For more of Pat’s fascinating world of the Amblers, Fisher-Smiths and great garden stories, for more on her life, Google: pat welsh.
Find out more about the artist Robert Henri too
https://www.henrirobert.org/the-complete-works.html?pageno=1
Aside from all of Pat’s numerous awards, accomplishments and charmed life, it is Pat’s life as an artist and member of the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild that leads me here today. I want to discover more about Pat Welsh the painter. As I am welcomed into Pat’s lovely John Lloyd Wright home, the many family photos and family paintings delight me. Here Pat and her husband Lou Welsh lived happily for many years raising their family under the watchful eye of Lou’s mother, Francis, and her husband John Lloyd Wright. Pat and Lou have two daughters, Francie Filanc and Wendy Woolf – both are also wonderful painters with two very different styles – not unlike Pat herself. Pat paints in both watercolor and oil and Pat produces two distinct styles with them. She learned to paint in her childhood Eden, Pond Island in Narragaugus Bay in Down East Maine. Here her father, Emerson Fisher-Smith, the only child of Sir George and Lady Hattie, taught his daughter the fundamentals of painting.
Hiking to the lighthouse path, Pat’s father set up the watercolor tools and began her formal instruction in painting. Father’s first instruction was #1. “Note where the light comes from and remember the direction.” #2. “Mix the blue of the sky.” #3. “Turn your paper upside down and paint the sky.” This latter technique results in a perfect gradation of the blue sky from light to dark. Father’s instruction was fully absorbed by 10-year old Pat and she was hooked – she would be an artist. The pursuit of art took her to Scripps College in Claremont, California, which had a very fine art program. Pat studied Art but her college adviser told her to change her major from Art to English since he thought that she’d make more money as a writer than as an artist. Today Pat says she writes for money and paints for joy, although she did admit she loves them both. 
While viewing the many paintings displayed in Pat’s garden home I notice the style change from watercolor to oil. Pat’s painted subjects are mainly of her many travels and are inspiringly delightful. You can tell where she’d traveled by her artful capture of the atmosphere through her chosen colors. From Maine to Mexico, Utah to the Greek Isles, Africa and beyond, the paintings capture more than just the scene but the atmosphere itself through the color choices. Her numerous field sketchbooks are a delight to view. Pat’s collection of years of travel sketches captures not only the scene in pen and watercolor but also her writing of the details brings it all together. She demonstrated her perfect Winsor & Newton field box to me while I paged through her travel sketches and traveled the world through Pat’s painted memories.
I asked Pat about her collective work and what it may reflect. Her work, she explained documents a charmed life adopted at an early age by Mother Nature. Pat feels we are here to learn. Although Pat has an extraordinary mind and memory even at age 93, she says her paintings make her many memories more vivid. Pat’s body of work has documented the path of a very full and beautiful life and has allowed her to continue to learn from her past and present experiences.
You can still find Pat and her group of friends, the Painting Ladies, painting together every Thursday in Pat's patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Del Mar.
Please take a look at Pat’s paintings at our Member's Gallery: https://www.ranchosantafeartguild.org/collections/164743
