Patrick Okrasinski

Born in New York, NY; Currently lives in Fair Lawn, NJ

Since he was a child, Patrick Okrasinski had an eye towards the natural world and a passion for drawing. Not long after graduating High School, he found his way to the US branch of the Florence Academy of Art in Jersey City in the Fall of 2016. There he was able to study at the highest levels of figurative painting available today while simultaneously pursuing painting the landscape en plein air. As a student he won numerous awards for his figure paintings as well as for still life, as well as a second-place prize in the ARC’s Scholarship Competition.

During the summer of 2019, he spent three months as Artist in Residence in Giverny, France, thanks to the Munn Artists Program through the Versailles Foundation Inc and Claude Monet Foundation. For three months he had a studio across the street from Monet’s house and gardens and spent his time painting in the surrounding countryside and making visits to Paris to see the great museums. In 2020 he was awarded the prestigious Donald Jurney Traveling Fellowship for the purpose of painting in and learning from the great historic and cultural centers of Europe.

Okrasinski draws inspiration from numerous movements spanning the 19th century to early 20th century. When it comes to landscape paintings, he particularly appreciates American Hudson River and Tonalist painters, French Impressionists, and Russian Itinerants. The discovery of the landscape paintings of Issac Levitan, Emile Carlsen, George Inness, Ivan Shishkin, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt, and John Singer Sargent have all made a deep impact, along with many others.

With his own work, he believes paintings should have breadth and unity, and that the whole of a painting should aim to convey a single mood, whether a sultry summer afternoon or a dramatic vista. Every painting offers not only a unique opportunity to explore and appreciate the world around us but also offers a chance to experiment with the process of painting, with color, application, texture, or composition. Poetry and art lie not in brainless transcription, but in the choices the artist makes and the feelings that they convey through their work.