MaryPat Patterson started art early and kept it up as long as she could, even after Parkinson’s began to take away her abilities.
Patterson was 84 when she died at a Lakewood care facility May 23 from the effects of the disease.
A service is planned for 10 a.m. today at Christ the King Lutheran church, 2300 S. Patton Court, Denver.
Patterson, a native of Detroit, kept her art work up no matter where she was as she traveled to six states with her late husband, Robert Patterson, who was an engineer.
She started painting animals and seascapes as a child and most of her life did watercolors, acrylics and pencil drawings. Some of her pencil work is in the Curtis Arts Center.
She also did watercolor collages of petroglyphs – ancient rock paintings by American Indians, often found on cliffs. The petroglyphs portrayed stories, either of a day’s event or of seasons, said Patterson’s daughter Mary Beth Beach of Lakewood.
She said her mother never did petroglyphs herself, feeling that would be an insult to the original artists. Her watercolors “evoked the sense” of the petroglyphs, said Beach.
Patterson had “a strong personality,” her daughter said, and didn’t want to be “brushed off. “She had quick retorts and plenty of opinions. But you could have yours, too,” said her daughter, laughing.
Patterson loved the Southwest and collected kachina dolls done by Hopi Indians. Before she died she gave 42 of the 44 dolls in her collection to Denver’s Museum of Nature & Science.
While she lived in Vernal, Utah, she was the driving force behind the founding of the Little Gallery of Art, which displayed both local and traveling artists’ work.
Mary Elizabeth Ethgrave was born March 23, 1922, and traveled with her family to England while her father was in the diplomatic corps.
While there she worked for the U.S. Army, and a young man, Robert Patterson, who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers came in, saw her and asked another employee, “Who’s that chick? Is she married?”
Ethgrave’s boss told the man that the young redheaded woman was 25, and Robert Patterson, 22, thought she was a little too old for him. But a visit with her changed his mind. They were married Aug. 22, 1943, in England. Robert Patterson, who died in 1995, called his wife “Red” for the rest of his life. And she kept her red hair all her life.
They lived for several decades in Denver, in both Harvey Park and north Denver.
MaryPat Patterson is survived by another daughter, Marion Lennberg of Salt Lake City; a son, Kevin Patterson of Kyrgyzstan; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or at 303-820-1223.
